All he ever wanted
by flyingpigacorn
Summary: Adrien has had love issues since the fateful day on which he first became Chat noir. Ladybug is the one he wants to love him, but what happens when he finds a way to talk and become friends with Marinette? Maybe Ladybug isn't the one for him. Join Adrien on his miraculous journey into the unsuspecting heart of Marinette while she unkowingly embarks on a similar quest.
1. Chapter 1

All he ever wanted

Chat noir leaped across the Parisian roof tops, his black leather suit blended with the night like he was nothing more than a shadow. He chuckled darkly to himself at that thought. That's all he was, a shadow, a shadow of the perfect golden boy his father wanted. Usually he used Chat noir as an escape from all his expectations and limitations, to become free from his father and Natalie's careful watch. Not tonight. Tonight though he still felt trapped in a shadow, Ladybug's shadow. He knew it wasn't her fault, she often defended him and became quite obviously angry and saddened when people called him useless or a sidekick, saying she didn't need him. Chat would've liked to believe his lady, that she did need him, but he knew that she didn't. Chat somersaulted over another gap, muscle memory leading him to wherever.

After hours of sprinting he stopped on a rooftop to catch his breath. He had found that sprinting across rooftops helped settle his frustrations. He was about to start off again when a voice cut through the night.

"Chat noir?" that voice was familiar and sounded quite startled, he knew it belonged to his classmate Marinette. She was so shy towards him, like he frightened her, but he knew for a fact she wasn't always like that to everyone. It honestly puzzled him to no end as to why she was like that with him. She wasn't around anyone else in school, so maybe it was how she reacted to knew people, but that didn't make sense because when they first met she seemed normal, angry but normal. So maybe he intimidated her? That wasn't right either because she spoke to Chat noir just fine and if she isn't afraid to sassy with one of Paris' top superheroes then she shouldn't worry about a model. "Are you alright?" Marinette's questioning tone that was laced with concern shook him from his thoughts. A smirk found a way onto his lips as he replied

"Of course _Purr_ incess, I'm just on the _prowl,_ looking for something to do. What about you? What's a damsel like you doing up at this late hour?" He asked. "Not waiting for your knight in shining leather to come and sweep you off your feet, I don't suppose." He wiggled his eyebrows just to make sure she knew what he meant.

Marinette giggled "No I'm not, but even if I was it's not like I know where to find one." she teased.

"Meowch, princess, you wound me!" Chat said, grabbing at his heart for extra effect. That's when an idea struck him. He had always wanted to get to know her but she always closed up around Adrien, but with Chat noir he could really get to know her, maybe call her his friend and then work out why she didn't like Adrien. It was a _claw_ less plan, nothing could possibly backfire horribly later!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So, Marinette, how have you been? I haven't spoken to you since the evillustrator incident." Chat asked, still smirking.

"You say that like we had a proper conversation in the first place, from what I recall most of the time that I spent with you was filled with your flirting and my saving your sorry ass." Marinette replied, clearly teasing him. If only she could be like this with him all the time, instead of constantly tripping over her tongue more often than her own feet or shoelaces or chair legs or steps, ect, ect.

"Really _Purr_ incess, flirting wasn't the only thing I did. As I recall, I saved you from the clutches of the evillustrator and I never heard one 'thank you'" Chat sassed right back. That was another curios thing about her, he flirted with her. He may be known for flirting as Chat noir, but he only really flirts with his lady, so why did he feel compelled to do the same with his princess? Also, he was pretty sure if he tried flirting with her a Adrien, she would faint or worse. He inwardly sniggered, he'd have to try that, just to see what would happen.

"Please stop using that nickname, I'm not a princess and yes you did. The only reason you could beat Nathaniel was because I saved you." Marinette smirked.

Chat frowned. "Don't say things like that Mari."

"Why, is it 'cause I still haven't thanked you?" She asked, not catching his meaning.

"Not that. Don't put yourself down, your just as worthy as anyone to be called Princess, if not more." Chat said in a way that offered no argument, he didn't like her putting herself down for some reason. Said princess just blinked, then her face exploded with red and she began to stammer out some form of jumbled apology. _Not again_ he thought _Why does she lose all ability to speak when I compliment her?! It's getting redi_ claw _lous! I though I was getting somewhere with her as Chat._ He sighed and decided it was best to stop her now. "I'm sorry if I said something wrong it's just that.."

"No, no, no. You didn't say anything wrong Chat"She cut him off quickly, looking down shyly she added ",it's just that I don't usually get those kind of comments about me." Now he was confused, she had so many friends like Alya and the rest of the classand so many more. Marinette obviously caught onto his confusion. "I get those comments a lot I guess, its not for lack of nice things said about me, it's just that I don't believe most people when they say it. I guess your just special." She clarified with a shrug.

"At least you got one thing right _Purr_ incess I most certainly am special." Chat said with a wink in the hopes of lightening the mood. The blue haired girl raised an eyebrow at his comment and smirked. Chat realised his mistake a second later. "NOT LIKE THAT! I DIDN'T MEAN... I meant .." Chat was about to go into a detailed explanation as to what he meant when an explosion cut him off. "Well, I'd love to stay and _chat_ but duty calls. We should do this again sometime." And with that he leapt off the balcony leaving a puzzled and amused Marinette behind to mutter a quiet and confused bye to the wind.

"What was that about Tikki? Do you think he worked out who I am?" Questioned Marinette who was somewhere between freaking out and being completely perplexed.

"I don't think he knows. He would've said something. Er... probably. Anyway we can discuss what Chat's visit means later, right now there's an akuma for Ladybug to defeat." Tikki reminded her charge of the current akuma situation.

"Yeah, you're right, lets go. Tikki, spots on!" Marinette exclaimed and seconds later Ladybug was swinging across Paris towards the screams and explosions.

"Miraculous ladybug!" Ladybug shouted, repairing all the damage the previous battle had caused. "Pound it!" Both the heroes said as they completed their customary fist bump. Chat grinned at her after making some comment on her beauty or something like that, but she wasn't listening. Ladybug was too busy pondering why that stray cat had visited her earlier. Ladybug nearly jumped right out of her polka-dot suit when said cat tapped her shoulder looking rather concerned.

"My lady, is there something _bugging_ you? You haven't been _paw_ self tonight." Chat tilted his head, just like a real cat as he said this.

"No, I'm fine." She replied quickly shaking out of her musings to focus on her partner. "Good job tonight by the way, I'm not sure I would've moved out the way of that sword quick enough if it weren't for you I could've been seriously hurt, or worse, dead." She smiled warmly at him and he grinned back, but then he turned serious.

"My lady, I need to ask you something." Chat said looking serious (for once). Ladybug was about to ask what it was when he stopped her by raising a clawed hand (paw?) "Not here, its top secret superhero business." He said looking pointedly at his classmate, Alya who was filming everything on her phone as per usual. Ladybug looked at Alya before heaving a sigh and agreeing that they should go somewhere more private. Without so much as a word both heroes took off in perfect sync to look for somewhere private to talk.

"Chat, if this is about wanting to know my identity, again, you can forget it." Ladybug stated firmly, knowing she wouldn't need to recite the whole 'our secret identities are the most important thing we have' speech, once they had both landed on the Eiffel tower. Both turned to lean on the rail, over looking the beautiful city and the starry night sky behind and above it.

Chat grinned at her, "Well, my lady, if you're offering I won't decline. But I know you too well for that. Although, don't you mean I can _fur_ get it?" Chat noir asked with a smirk. Ladybug just sighed and gave him an exasperated stare that said 'get on with it' and 'no I didn't mean that and you know it'. "Alright, alright, I wanted to talk to you about a civilian." Ladybug raised her eyebrows at this, "You know her too, its Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you got me to keep her safe during the evillustrator incident."

"Yeah, I know her. She's a friend of mine."At Chat's startled look she clarified "She doesn't know my identity, kitty. If anyone found out you would know. Either that or I tell you my identity, which isn't likely to happen anytime soon. What about her is it that you wanted to discuss anyway?"

"Well, I know her in my normal life and well... I don't really know how to put this, she...she just seems really shy and clumsy around me but when I'm Chat noir she's sassy and confident, she kinda reminds me of you in a way **(A/N, *sigh if only they knew).** I really wanna get to know her, she seems like a really kind and fun person." Chat was about to go on explaining everything when Ladybug cut him off,

"Chat, what you do in either of your lives isn't my choice. I don't control you, if I did you wouldn't make those awful puns all the time."

"Don't you mea-" He started

"Don't you dare say it." She cut him off again. "Look, my point is is that what you do is your decision to make, just don't reveal your identity to anyone, you never know who could be Hawkmoth." With that last statement Ladybug unhooked her yo-yo and swung off to her home for the small amount sleep she could hopefully get. After freaking out to Tikki first, of course. Which left a very happy kitty to go in the opposite direction, towards his cold unforgiving mansion that he called a home to probably fan-boy over his crush until he falls asleep.

After arriving back at her house, Marinette immediately transformed. She then turned to Tikki "Why did I say that? Now he's going to stalk me as a civilian and work out my identity! Oh, no, what if he's disappointed? He said he knew me in his normal life! What if he tells everyone and shames me for pretending to be a hero when I'm just a boring, average girl? Then I'll have to move to another country and go to clown school so I can runaway with the circus under a fake name because I won't have any qualifications because he'll probably work everything out before I leave school! My life is over!" Marinette wailed dramatically. Tikki just rolled her eyes.

"I somehow doubt that will happen, Marinette. Just get some sleep and you can freak out properly in the morning." Tikki suggested. The bluenette just nodded. Both kwami and girl then went to sleep, ready for whatever was going to come the next day. At least the kwami did, Marinette just lay awake thinking of cats and identities and several horrifying disasters.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day proceeded mostly as normal. Marinette was late, Alya teased her about one thing or another (aka, her crush on a certain blonde model. Not that he knows, of course), Mrs. Bustier taught another boring lesson, Chloé was a bitch, ect, ect. However, thing became less ordinary at lunch when Adrien walked over to Marinette and Alya's table, where they were happily chatting away. Adrien quickly sat down next to Alya and opposite from Marinette, both girls looked at him expectantly. Nino had been ill that day so he wasn't around to talk Adrien out of this one. He looked Marinette in the eye, her face immediately exploded with a light red colour. Adrien inwardly smirked _If she blushes that colour when I look at her, what is she going to do after I've conducted my experiment on her?_ He nearly laughed out loud at the thought.

Still maintaining eye contact he asked her "Hey, Marinette, do you have a map?"

She looked at him, puzzled by his question "N-no. W-wh-why do yo-you need one?" She stuttered out with obvious difficulty.

Adrien just smiled at her politely, "Nothing much. I just keep getting lost in your eyes." After a few seconds Marinette went through the best facial expressions he had ever seen within a minute one one person. He could clearly see all her thoughts written on her face. It went something like, confusion, non-comprehensive, looking to Alya to see if she'd heard right and receiving a nod, then to more confusion, then you could see the words going through her head while she deciphered the meaning, she then blushed a shade of red that put Ladybug's suit to shame while giggling like she had just lost the last of her sanity (which she had, not that he knew) and finally she passed out and fell onto the floor. Adrien knew it was mean but he really wished he could've filmed it. No, he was a gentleman and gentlemen don't film stuff like that. But... nothing stopped him from doing it again...

Later, in biology Adrien was going to drop another amazing pick up line that was so cheesy Plagg could've eaten it. He turned to look at Marinette, about to ask if she was oxygen, because he couldn't live without her, but he hesitated when he looked at her. She seemed like she was in a dream and a really good one at that. "Are you alright, Mari?" He asked in concern.

"Yes you are." She sighed dreamily in response. She then seemed to snap back to reality "I-I mean y-yes, I'm a-alright." Marinette stuttered out with a blush. Her eyes went wide as she tried to back pedal "N-not th-that your not alright, your more than alright your p-perfect. I mean your not perfect, no one's perfect. N-not that I don't t-think you're perfect, I mean you're Adrien Agreste. I mean of course your Adrien, who else would you be? I-I mean, I'm just go-going to s-stop talking now." Marinette finished her torrent of embarrassing stuttering by face planting onto her desk, in the vague hope everything might just disappear. Her answer worried him, he'd have to check on her as Chat. Looking at her now, eye twitching every now and again, probably as a result of whatever Alya was saying, he wondered if he had crossed some sort of line with her. A simple pick up line that held a bit of a cheesy scent to it couldn't possibly mess someone up that bad could it? No. But he should still check, just to make sure if nothing else.

After school Marinette and Tikki had a proper conversation about Chat and now Adrien. They couldn't decide what Adrien's behaviour meant (after about an hour of crying and despair). Chat however was a different story since most the talking was done by Tikki while her human charge frantically paced whilst screaming at herself. Tikki tried to calm her to calm down but the usual response was something like 'Calm!Calm? How can I be calm when I told cat that he could come visit me as MYSELF! How could I be so stupid? He's going to figure out my identity for sure! Plus he said he knows me in his civilian form'. Every time Tikki told her that she was being ridiculous and that maybe it's a good thing. Hours later Marinette calmed down enough to realise that now she could get to know her silly kitty better and maybe become someone he trusts (outside the suit). Marinette knew deep down that the thing stopping her most (aside from Tikki's rules) was the fear that he would reject her and hate her because of who she is outside of the mask. It's not that she lacks faith in Chat, its her own personal insecurities getting in the way.

Just as Marinette finally calmed her nerves and decided that she did make the right decision there was a _tap, tap, tap_ on the trapdoor leading to her balcony. Of course he came right now, she could've used a bit more time to prepare herself. Marinette quickly started making her way to her balcony to greet the impatient stray that was out there. Suddenly, half way up her ladder, she had brilliant idea! She'll ask cat if he could explain anything about Adrien's flirting(?). Who else would be better to ask that she knows? He's nearly the perfect person to ask, he's a boy, like Adrien and Chat noir is well known for being a massive flirt. Hold on, she couldn't do that! Telling him about Adrien flirting with her would make him suspicious since she was never effected like this when he dropped a line like that and he had dropped a load of pick up lines on her, and it is a lot, especially considering the amount of conversation they'd actually shared. No, she couldn't ask him for advice, she'd have to work this out on her own (plus Tikki).

Chat noir paced frantically across Marinette's balcony, waiting impatiently for her to come out. He didn't think he'd done much damage, it's always best to double check though. Plus, if she was fine then they could talk and hang out some more, he really enjoyed her company and it was far better in his opinion to be talking with Mari than sitting in his fancy prison, board out of his mind. Chat was about to knock on her trap door again when it was abruptly thrown open and he came face to face with a very dishevelled looking Marinette. He backed off so she could get up properly and he could get a full look at her appearance. Her hair looked like she had combed it with a fork, her clothes were a wrinkled mess and the most worrying of everything, her eyes were red, a sign she had been crying. "Princess?!" He exclaimed in surprise. "Are you alright? It looks like you're in distress." Somehow though, she looked even cuter than normal. _Wait,_ he thought, _where did that come from?_

Marinette's eyes widened in surprise and she looked down at herself, as if just realising she looked like she'd been dragged through a bush backwards. "Oh." Was her intelligent response as her face lit up with a light blush. "Sorry, I just had some things on my mind that were stressing me out and when that happens I tend to pace and, um, yeah.." She finished by looking down and internally hoping he wouldn't push the subject further. He did.

Chat didn't believe that she was telling him the whole truth for a moment. "What has been troubling you so much that it got you in this state?" Chat asked like the curious creature he was, wondering if she would tell him the truth or a lie.

"Umm...I, er. A test! Yeah, I have a really important test coming up and I'm really stressed out about it." She hastily stammered out, she hated lying to him but she couldn't just tell him her crush had flirted with her. That would require possibly telling him who her crush is, if he didn't already know, he did say that he knew her in his normal life, maybe he already knew. She couldn't risk that though so she'd just have to hope he'd drop the subject.

Cat raised a mask covered eyebrow "You're a terrible liar, princess." He dead-paned. He happened to know for a fact they had no big test.

"And how would you know I'm lying?" She shot right back. Ok, maybe he didn't affect her too badly he internally sweat dropped.

"A little birdie told me." Chat answered her query easily. Now she raised an eyebrow,

"My, my, maybe you're not as much of a cat as you get credit for. I thought for sure any self respecting cat would've eaten a 'little birdie'" Marinette taunted him, smirking. She definitely seemed better now, maybe poking fun at him made people feel better, he's starting to see a pattern of that happening.

"Fine, I have very reliable sources in your school, but don't think I've forgotten my original question. What's really gotten you so worked up? And don't lie to me again" Chat said in order to get them back on topic. Boy did he regret that one

Immediately her mood plummeted. The teenage girl looked down and wiped a stray tear from her eye. Chat couldn't accept that. Her giving him answers to a question (that she might already have given him the answer to) was not and never would be above comforting her. "Hey, hey it's alright _Purr_ incess, I'm sorry I pushed, you don't have to tell me anything." Chat noir told her gently as he dragged her towards him (with little resistance) for a hug. Soon after Marinette was letting go of all her frustrations and pent up emotions about what happened with Adrien. She sobbed against his chest as he cradled her shaking form, trying to sooth her with gentle words. And as Chat held her, she told him the basics of what had happened (leaving out her crush for obvious reasons).

Eventually, as the moon rose in the sky, Marinette's sobs died down until all that could be heard was Chat's comforting and the odd sniffle from Marinette. All too soon he had to break the silence "I need to go now Mari, but only if you're going to be alright" Looking at her now had him wanting to die of guilt.

"I'll be fine" She sniffled. "I don't really know where that all came from. I should be feeling happy." Marinette tried for a smile but it didn't really work but with those final reassurances, plus promises for Chat to come back again soon, the leather clad boy jumped away into the night leaving his princess to get some rest.

On his way home he kept thinking about her comment about being happy, shouldn't she be upset or at the very least mutual? Why should she feel happy? It's not like she has a major crush on him or something like that, that would be ridiculous. When he got home, getting in via the window he had left open, Adrien immediately transformed and went straight to his phone.

"Nino, I need your help."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Nino, I need your help." Adrien said down the phone dramatically, almost as if he was saying it to help a writer end a chapter of their story on a semi-cliffhanger **(A/N That's me!)**

"Dude, its 2am. No one should be awake right now. This had better be important, if not call me in the morning." Nino grumbled sleepily down the phone after being rudely awakened by his friend.

"I've screwed up with Marinette." Adrien started to explain the situation to his sleepy friend but was soon stopped

"Yup, I'm going back to sleep. Talk to you at a decent time."

"Nino! I'm serious, I really screwed up this time! I don't know how to fix it and what makes it worse is that I involved Chat so now if I can't fix things with her as Adrien, she'll never speak to me again and hate me for forever and a bit as both of myselves! I'll probably be skinned alive and made into a really unfashionable hat or some other clothing item like a scarf!" **(A/N ahh, nothing like the sweet smell of irony in the morning!)**

"I'm off for one day..." Nino muttered to himself. Then he sighed and decided that he should probably help his best bud out, he sounded truly distressed, like he really had messed up this time. "Fine, what did you do? I'm sure it's not as bad as you're making out to be."

"Well I had this thought the other day about how Marinette's always so shy around Adrien. She always blushes and loses all ability to speak whenever I so much as smile. So I thought, what would happen if I flirted with her slightly?"

"You did what?" Nino asked, already knowing what the problem might be. "What did she do?"

"I was getting to that. She kind of went through a strange and comical sequence of emotions, then she fainted. She was in a complete daze all day. I was worried about her so I visited her as Chat to make sure she was fine." Adrien continued explaining the previous events to his friend.

When Adrien finished reciting the events of the previous chapter* Nino burst into hysterical laughter. "What? This isn't funny Nino, she was crying! Oh, Marinette probably hates me now." Adrien cried to Nino. Nino just laughed harder at this.

After several minutes of laughter Nino managed to chuckle out "OK, that was worth waking up at stupid o'clock for. You seriously think she hates you? Dude she isn't mad or angry or upset and, I can assure you, doesn't in anyway hate you." Its quite the opposite he mused.

"Nino, she was literally sobbing in my arms, crying about what I did to her and her confusion about it!" Adrien tried to express his point that there was no way Marinette didn't hate him.

"Exactly my point!" Nino exclaimed. "She was confused. I've known Marinette for years, she was confused about what this meant for your friendship" _and her crush on you_ he muttered in his head. " and there was probably a load of other worries that were piling on her as well, you adding some major confusion was most likely her tipping point and as the most recent thing to happen was front and centre in her mind. She probably doesn't even know what happened." _Especially since this whole thing stinks of more bull than Chlo_ _é_ thought Nino as he was deciding how much Marinette would owe him for coming up with this excuse, he could use with a pair of jeans being repaired...

After Adrien hung up to go fetch Plagg some cheese, Nino called Marinette to explain the cover that he gave her. He couldn't tell her that Adrien was Chat noir, so he had to tell her that Chat had spoken to Adrien about what had happened as the two were now best friends, thanks to Nino's lying. She couldn't tell Adrien or Chat that she knew of their friendship because he wasn't supposed to tell anyone. She thanked him for helping her out and agreed to mend his trousers and keep his secret. What he did for his friends. Sometimes he wished he'd never found out about Adrien's secret, things were so much simpler then, although, now he fully understood the love square between Adrien/Chat, Ladybug and Marinette. **(A/N he doesn't know about Marinette being Ladybug but he can see all four corners of the square)**

The next day at school, Marinette looked back to her normal, bubbly self and didn't look like she'd been up half the night crying, unlike Adrien who looked every bit like a sleep deprived zombie. Everything was as normal until Adrien said his usual greeting and Marinette stuttered and babbled so bad that she accidentally ended up spoiling the end of a few Disney princess films for Adrien who hadn't watched them since, like Nino always said, Adrien had had no childhood. No one's really sure how she managed to spoil several films while trying/failing miserably to say hello, but after their respective greetings/ramblings Marinette didn't attempt to speak to him again and avoided him for the rest of the day out of fear of ruining something else with him, like the ending of star wars. Adrien, being the sweet naïve cinnamon roll he was, didn't realise she was afraid of what damage her random babbles could do and thought he had managed to upset her again. For some reason this thought made his heart ache in a way only thoughts including Ladybug had ever done. Weird. It was probably because he didn't want to upset her again so soon after he just had, not that he wanted to upset her at all. He resolved to visit her again that night as Chat noir, a knight had to make sure his Princess was alright after the previous evening had been spent with her in his arms crying slightly hysterically, even if she didn't have the courtesy to look like it even the slightest.

After school Adrien went to his fencing lessons as well as a last minute photo shoot and then he went home for his dinner and piano lessons. When he'd finished all his extra curricular activities for the day he collapsed onto his bed with an arm thrown dramatically over his eyes. "Plagg, I'm not moving another inch today. No one should have to run on 3 hours of sleep. How was Marinette so full of energy? She must have her own set of superpowers." Adrien complained to his kwami who was happily eating cheese in peace 'till his wielder started talking. Plagg frowned then grinned mischievously

"I think you're forgetting something-"

"No I've done my torture for today thanks." Adrien cut him off.

"I suppose we aren't going to see your princess tonight then. Good, I've been looking forward to a quiet night in for a while." Plagg finished. He may be renowned for his laziness but Plagg had promised Tikki that he would make sure Chat gave Marinette another visit tonight and Plagg was too scared of the little god of creation to not keep his promise.

Adrien sat bolt upright in bed like he'd been struck by lightning. He'd been struck, not by lightning, but by the realisations that Plagg was right, he had to check up on his Princess, she may have seemed fine at school (except for when she spoke to him) but he had to double check she was fine. "Plagg, claws out!" Adrien exclaimed and in a flash of green light he was out his window and racing to Marinette's house.

Chat got there in record time, but what he saw took him by complete surprise...

 **A/N welcome to the end of another chapter. I attempted another cliff hanger and I hope this one is better. So, I recently wrote my profile and I decided on the stupid idea to use it to tell everyone when the next updates on stories will be so for dates on the next chapter please chck my profile. Thank you for all your support on this and keep sending reviews, it really helps and I enjoy knowing what you guys think. Also did you know, the act of throwing someone out of a window is called defenestration?**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chat noir landed silently on the railing of his classmate's balcony and took in the scene. His breath caught in his throat at the sight in front of him. While he stared on in awe he took in every detail. Marinette was sat on her balcony, absorbed in her designs, surrounded with the pale fairy lights that she'd hung around the roof and railings of her balcony. The moon highlighted her pale skin and with the stars as a twinkling backdrop, she looked so beautiful. _Wait, what?_ Since when was Marinette beautiful? And when had he ever looked at another girl except Ladybug like that? Chat shook himself out of his thoughts, he wouldn't fall for another girl, he'd hold on for as long as it took his lady to realise what was in front of her **(A/N I actually hurt myself face palming at that).** "Good evening, _Purr_ incess. I just thought I'd stop by to make sure you're feeling better today and to have a nice _chat_." Chat announced his presence to the girl. Marinette looked up at him,

"I'm feeling much better than yesterday, thanks a lot for staying with me by the way, I really appreciated it. Tha-"

"It was no trouble Princess, you don't need to thank me. I was just doing my duty, it requires no reward except the smile on your face." Chat told her in a way that was half teasing and half totally honest. He grinned at her, pleased to be able to know he had helped her.

"And that's why I spent a few hours baking you some treats to say thank you with." Marinette finished with a knowing smile. Chat had mentioned one night that he loved her family's baking so she knew she hadn't wasted her time since she'd become just as good of a baker as her parents.

Chat's previous smile vanished as he realised what she'd done. No one, not even Hawkmoth himself could resist Marinette's family's cooking. "Well, I suppose some thanks once in a while couldn't hurt." He tried to take a swipe at the basket but Marinette, with surprising grace and speed, snatched it up and held it behind her as she stood facing him.

"Oh no you don't" She taunted as he made another grab, she danced out the way while laughing. "You don't need thanks you said. So I'll just have to eat these all by myself." Marinette clearly thought she'd won. She had, in realistic terms, but he was Chat noir. He wouldn't go down without a fight, especially when fighting for baked goods.

As his last brilliant attempt to swipe the treats cat dropped to his knees in front of he and began to beg, "Pleeaassee, let me have some of your amazing cooking, Marinette." He made his ears droop, put on the 'helpless kitten' eyes and clutched his hands under his chin for good measure. Marinette's eyes widened as she was caught off guard by his sudden change in attitude. This lapse in concentration allowed Chat to quickly grab the basket from her grasp. He hugged said basket to his chest and started grinning in a way that eerily resembled the Cheshire cat. Marinette took another second to realise that he'd distracted her with his adorable looks so he could get the basket. _Hang on,since when was that mangy ally cat adorable?_ She thought. She was soon dragged from her musings by Chat as he looked through the contents of his prize "Princess, you really didn't have to go to this much effort. There's enough to supply the army for a week in here!" Chat exclaimed with wide eyes. He absently wondered how the basket could contain that amount of food without bursting. Marinette looked at the floor and pouted,

"Yes I did," She muttered "you helped me so much last night. Plus I want to thank you for all you do to save and protect Paris with Ladybug." What she really wanted was for him to feel more appreciated since she knew he felt like she was better, like everyone else seemed to.

"It's no trouble, Princess, and it never will be. It's my _purr_ leasure to rescue Paris and it's citizens from the clutches of evil." He smiled at her. Marinette sat back down on the multiple blankets she'd previously laid down for them to sit on and patted the spot next to her, signalling for Chat to follow suit.

"Come sit down and tell me of all your heroic and gallant deeds. "She teased dramatically. "Plus I want some of those pastries myself. I slaved over those for hours to make sure they were good enough for Paris' second best hero." When she said the last bit she made sure to make it clear that she was joking and in no way thought he was second best.

And so Chat noir sat next to his shy classmate. They spent the whole evening and night talking, discussing, joking and laughing together while they shared Marinette's cooking. Over the evening they became so much closer, so close in fact that they could call the other their best friend, not that either would admit this to their respective best friends. The two teenagers laughed and joked the night away. They learnt things about one another that only a select few others might know. Marinette learnt that her silly, flirty kitty had a serious, sensitive side to him. A part that to Marinette, made her take him more seriously as a person, opposed to her overly flirtatious partner who she never took notice of when he flirted with her or made any kind of romantic advances. She greatly valued that he chose to open himself up to her as Marinette, as herself.

On the other hand a certain alley cat learnt that his shy, quiet classmate wasn't quite as shy and quiet as he had first thought, rather she was sassy, confident and caring to a fault. Chat also learnt , maybe most importantly, that Marinette, if nothing else, is far stronger than she looks. At one point in the night after he had something or another that put him down and Ladybug above him, Marinette, being a rational and sane human being like she is, flipped the leather clad superhero over her balcony railing, holding him aloft by the tail. She had refused to stop dangling him off her roof until he accepted that he was just as good if not better than Ladybug and made him promise not to say anything of the sort ever again or else she'd hunt him down and make him pay. Over the course of Chat's visit they laughed and joked together, with cat cracking a record number of _cat_ astrophic cat puns. Adrien knew that he shouldn't spend another talking with Marinette. It wasn't a good idea by any measure considering he'd been like a zombie the whole day due to lack of sleep. However he knew he couldn't regret a single moment that he'd spent with his princess... except maybe when she was about to drop his sorry leather hide onto the concrete pavement from the third floor. He definitely regretted that, just thinking of the storm aimed at him swirling in her eyes made him shiver. But that wasn't the point. Of course he knew he'd have to leave soon, because A) it was getting really late and B) Plagg's cheese payment bill was sure to be going up to an astonishing height. Chat stood up like the graceful creature of his namesake.

"I'm ever so sorry _Purr_ incess, but I'm afraid that this handsome kitten has to retire to his own palace for whatever sleep this fine night has left to offer." He bowed deeply and grabbed his trusty silver baton from his back.

"I suppose I should get some sleep too." Yawned Marinette. Chat chuckled

"Yes you should. Every lady needs their beauty sleep." Chat gave her a wink as her leaped onto the railing of her balcony. Before he ran off into the night he turned and gave her a final smile and goodbye, saying "I deeply enjoyed tonight, we should do this again sometime." and with that he extended his baton and vaulted himself silently off into the night.

When Adrien swung back through his bedroom window and de-transformed he immediately had a little black cat kwami giving him a very suggestive look. "What is it Plagg? If this is about the extortionate cheese bill I have then you can forget it until tomorrow." Adrien told his kwami. He was very tiered and wanted to get to sleep as soon as was physically possible.

"Oh, I can assure you this isn't about cheese, although you do owe me an awful lot, but this might just be better." Plagg snickered. While Plagg wasn't good at offering advice or helping with matters of the heart, unlike Tikki, he did deeply enjoy watching the drama unfold. Over the centuries Plagg had seen many different types of romantic dramas unfold between various Chat noir's and Ladybug's, but this might be his favourite yet. He was going to enjoy watching this unfold. Plagg knew his charge well and knew that the boy liked Marinette, although he didn't know it yet, but he also knew that she liked Adrien's civilian persona. However, she was Ladybug and so had had to keep her relationship with Chat professional, now, as Marinette, she didn't have to and so could discover the feelings she didn't know she had. All while Adrien falls for his shy classmate. Oh yes, Plagg would enjoy watching this.

Adrien gave Plagg a curios look. "What could be better to you than cheese? You practically worship the stuff." Plagg gave the teenager an offended look.

"Cheese is amazing and deserves to be treated much better than it is." Plagg then went back to his previous thoughts about the romance at hand. "But something that is better than cheese is a good old fashioned teenage romance." At Adrien's confused look he elaborated. "I know you like her."

"Of course I like her, Marinette's my friend. I wouldn't be friends with someone I didn't like." Adrien still didn't get it.

"No, you idiot. I meant you love her." Plagg dead-panned. Why did he always get the clueless one's.

Adrien looked quite startled at that "No I don't. I love My lady, not my Princess. Marinette's my friend and nothing more." Adrien told his kwami firmly. _Idiot!_ oh well, if he would be stupid then Plagg would just have to have fun with that instead of any of his previous schemes. He had always liked making his charges squirm and blush.

"Yes you do to love her."

"No, I don't."

"Do."

"Don't."

"Do."

"Don't"

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I don't!"

Conversation/argument continued on like that until they were finally interrupted by Adrien's alarm going off. Adrien groaned "I had really hoped to get more sleep than last night." To say Adrien was tiered that day would be an understatement, Nino had to wake him up several times during the day.

Adrien swore that he would never pull nearly two all nighters in a row again, no matter what happened.

 **A/N I feel kinda sorry for Adrien. Oh well, I'm sure he'll be fine. I know I've made Plagg a bit ooc but it'll make things easier for me later as I won't have to worry about Plagg being unco-operative and I can hopefully add some of Plagg being a top undercover secret match-maker. Just to make things clear as well, this is a MariChat story and a reveal shoud happen later on when the plot calls for it. They will end up together and it WILL be HAPPY. I have a freind who is writing a fanfic and is adding as much angst as is physically possible, it's going to be so sad if it goes ahead as planned. I don't think I could ever do something as bad as her plans to any of my beloved characters. My friend is a monster. Nothing else to it.**

 **On a different note, about 52 litres of water are used to make a single cup of tea containing two sugars and a bit of milk. 30 to grow the tea, 10 for a bit of milk and 6 per sugar. I love random, usless facts. Until next chapter, bye.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

" _We should do this again sometime."_ , is what he had said. Marinette sighed for what felt like the 100th time that morning. After Chat had gone she had gone to sleep, like she'd planned, but she didn't count on having dreams about a certain kitty. Marinette had had a restless sleep because where she was used to dreaming of Adrien, Chat noir appeared in his place to sweep her off her feet. The worst thing was that she didn't seem to mind too much. Marinette shook her head and sighed yet again. The young designer looked around her room, hoping to find distract herself with. She definitely succeeded, when her gaze briefly wandered over her alarm clock. It read 8:15. SHE WAS LATE FOR SCHOOL! AGAIN! Marinette immediately sprung into action, getting dressed, tying up her hair in her usual twin pigtails, grabbing her school bag and finally snatching a croissant from the bakery as she said good-bye to her parents on her way to school. She raced down the street while eating her breakfast.

A few minutes later, Marinette bust through the classroom door just as the bell went. "Well, it's an improvement from your usual time of arrival, miss Dupain-Cheng." Mrs Bustier sighed, not expecting anything less from her student. Mrs Bustier had given up a long time ago on trying to make Marinette come to school on time, it was a lost cause. Marinette smiled sheepishly at her teacher and quickly scurried to her seat, keeping her head down to avoid making eye contact with Adrien, last time she had managed to trip over air because of the fleeting glance her crush had given to her. Once sat Alya was quick to turn to her "Why so early, girl?" She whispered.

"I'm not incapable of getting to school on time you know." Marinette told her friend, who just raised an unbelieving eyebrow. "I can get to school on time!" Marinette exclaimed. By this point Adrien and Nino turned around to join in the conversation

"To be fair, Mari, you are late 99.9% of the time." Nino added, he'd known the girl since they were little kids and she had always been known for her tardiness, although in the last few years it had gotten a lot worse.

"It is kind of unusual for you to be on time, Marinette." Adrien said, making Marinette flush a bright red. She was about to start spouting her normal unintelligible gibberish when she noticed how tiered he looked. She gathered her courage and managed to form her question without too much stuttering,

"A-are yo-you alright, A-adrien? You look-k like you d-didn't sleep at all." Adrien's vibrant green eyes widened at her, he knew why he looked like he hadn't slept, it was because he hadn't, but he was sure no one would notice since he'd been sure to cover it up any and every way he could, Adrien was amazed at Marinette for even noticing. It was another example of the girls kindness and sincerity that she would notice and care when some one she didn't even like was unhappy, troubled or, as in this case, tiered. He admired her even more for it as well, knowing how hard it was not to snap at people like Chloé and she was 'nice' towards him. Marinette must have the patience of a saint. Staring into her concerned ocean, blue eyes at that moment sparked a deep sense of longing in him, a longing for some one like her to appear in his life more frequently, some one to be worried about him, some one whom he could turn to no matter what the circumstance, maybe even some one for him to love and be loved by in return. Adrien's not stupid though, he knew that person would probably never be Ladybug, no matter how much he still longed for her. He had been trying to move on for months now, but moving on was harder than it seems because of how long he had had his crush on her and he was sure he would always love her to some degree, no matter what. Adrien had always known that she had a crush on another boy that wasn't him. It became unhealthy to obsess as much as he did and at that point he knew he had to find some one else.

"Yo dude are you alright?" Nino's voice snapped him back to reality and he flushed a light red as he realised he'd been too busy staring into Marinette's eyes to notice his friends concerned looks, which included Marinette who he realised he still hadn't answered. She had also gone a funny shade of red.

"I umm, I'm fine. I just didn't get much sleep last night." Adrien said while giving his friends a sheepish smile.

"And why is that?" Asked an ever curious Alya.

He was not prepared for that question. Adrien doubted he could tell the truth, that he'd been up talking to Marinette and then spent the rest of the night arguing with his aggravating kwami. That would not go down well at all. "I er, I was umm... I.." What could he say? Nothing was really that believable. Thankfully Marinette took notice of his discomfort and saved him from Alya's questioning,

"Hey, Alya, can you show me the footage of Chat noir and Ladybug you filmed yesterday? I didn't get chance to see it on the Ladyblog last night and I really want to see it." Adrien shot Marinette a grateful look as Alya went into fangirl mode as she showed Marinette the footage of the latest akuma attack.

The school day passed quickly and at the end the group of four friends were laughing together on the way to the school gates when Marinette let out a groan. "What is it, girl?" Asked Alya.

"I have Physics homework to do tonight. I hate physics, its going to take all night." She complained. At that moment, when Adrien was about to offer his help a car horn beeped, alerting Adrien that his ride had arrived.

"Bye, guys I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck with your homework Marinette." Adrien said as he made his way over to his limousine. As he walked he heard Alya and Nino commiserated with Marinette while each telling her how sorry they were that they couldn't help. This sparked an idea within Adrien, just because Adrien couldn't help Marinette, didn't mean that Chat noir couldn't. With that thought he went home and whizzed through his Mandarin lesson and his piano lesson.

Within three hours Chat noir could be seen leaping over rooftops, on his way to rescue his princess from her dreaded physics homework.

 **A/N Sorry it took so long to update, what with Christmas and buying presents, plus I've started another story wich I've been working on. Anyway, merry slightly late Christmas!**

 **Did you know, one of the pope's once tried to ban sneezing in church because it's too close to sexual extasy. (Don't question me, my friend's the one with wierd facts like this).**

 **Please review and let me know what you think : )**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Chat landed silently on Marinette's balcony. He had looked through her window before he got up there to make sure that she was alone, it would be hard for the poor girl to explain to her parents why the leather clad hero of Paris was in her bedroom, but luckily he could only see Marinette. Chat noir knocked on the trap door. His heightened hearing picked up her scrambling around her room, in what seemed like a rush, then some rustling paper followed by more footsteps. A few seconds later Marinette flew out her trapdoor and grabbed an unsuspecting Chat by the shoulders and hugged him tightly to her chest.

"Chat! Thank the Gods! I need your help! Please help me! I'll do anything you want, just please help me! I can't take the torture any more!" Marinette exclaimed, she then pulled back abruptly so Chat could get a look at her properly. She was still in her usual outfit but she somehow looked more dishevelled than the time she was crying, her eyes were filled with panic as well.

"Of course, Princess, I always help a citizen in need." Chat replied with wide eyes.

Marinette looked visibly relieved and grabbed Chat's wrist. She quickly dragged him into her room with great strength, which still surprised him despite what he found out the night before. Marinette threw him onto one of her desk chairs, then plopped into her own, "I hope you're good at physics because I'm not letting you out of this room until my homework is done and with the correct answers. I also will need to understand everything since that's the whole point of homework. And don't try to escape, it will be _very_ painful for you. " She told him in a serious tone, she had a glint in her eye that made Chat gulp and wonder what would happen if he tried to escape. He doubted it was worth the freedom.

"Luckily for you, _Purr_ incess _mew_ are talking to a master of physics. Good thing too, because this would've been _cat_ astrophic if I failed at physics as much as you!" Chat told her with a cheeky wink while he looked over her answers. Looking at some of them he couldn't help but stare at Marinette incomplete awe, "Mari, how can you fail at this so badly? These answers are _cataclysm_ icallywrong"

"Thanks for the encouragement." Marinette pouted while looking away. Chat chuckled,

"Well, that's why you asked me to help _mew_ out." Marinette just sighed at the puns and turned her attention to her dreaded homework.

"Alright Einstein, less puns, more physics stuff." Marinette ordered. "How do you do this one?" She asked pointing to one halfway down the page that particularly bad.

Chat blanched at the scribbled mess of working out and an answer, "Maybe we should start at the beginning and work our way down, correcting each _claw_ ful answer as we go." he suggested.

"Good idea!" Marinette praised, but then she looked down, her bangs covered her eyes and cast her face into shadow and continued saying, "But, if I hear one more pun, I'll dangle you off my balcony again.", there was a seriousness to her voice that left no doubt in Chat's mind that she was absolutely serious.

"Of _claws_ , no more of my _pun_ derful puns." Marinette made to grab his arm, but Chat put them up in a sign of surrender. "Those were the last ones. I swear." When she continued to look unconvinced, with her arms crossed over her chest, he grinned at her and said "Cats honour, Princess."

"Fine, that'll have to do." Marinette grumbled with a roll of her blue eyes.

"But, I will be continuing with the puns as usual after you have stopped holding me here against my will." Chat told her.

Marinette got a dangerous spark in her ocean blue eyes at that. "I didn't bring you here, Chat noir, you came voluntarily. However, if you want me to hold you against your will, well, I'm not one to do things half arsed."

Soon Marinette was getting tutored in physics by Chat noir and true to her word, Chat was strapped to the chair with his own tail, his baton out of reach and series of extra strong strings fashioned into an alarm system. If Chat struggled too much or moved then needles, a kitchen knife and a trowel would fire at him, that included if he used his cataclysm. Chat was impressed and had made a comment that she was scarily good and efficient at making the setup and that she could easily be a great mafia boss if she couldn't make it in the fashion industry, Marinette just said she'd think about it and winked at him.

An hour and a bit later and Marinette was finished with her physics, feeling confident in her understanding of the subject, for once. Chat noir had surprised her with his knowledge of physics as well as his ability to be a really good tutor, he had never lost patience with her and despite being restrained by a booby-trapped chair he managed to make it seem easy and kind of fun. After finishing Marinette let out a sigh full of content. She was just starting to reach for the first knot of her booby-trap to start releasing Chat when her father called up for her. "Marinette! Dinner's ready!" Marinette sighed in annoyance and shouted down,

"Alright, I'll be down in a minute!" She then turned to the hero that was still tied to her chair, "I suppose I should let you go now. Thank you for helping me with this and I promise to have something to thank you properly next time I see you."

"I didn't really have a choice, Princess. And you say 'next time' as if I'm leaving." Chat replied giving Marinette his trademark grin.

Marinette raised an eye brow at him, "And what are you going to do while I'm eating with my parents?" She asked sceptically.

"Well, what's a guy to do when in a lady's room all alone but snoop through her things without her permission." Chat gave her a flirtatious smile that would send any other girl swooning into next week. "I wonder what flattering underwear I can dig up in your drawers, or what secrets you keep hidden in your diary."

The young designer wasn't effected in the least by Chat's remarks. "Are you really going to stay up here, all alone while I'm downstairs?" She asked.

"Most certainly, Princess."

"Your not going to transform into a pumpkin or anything while I'm gone?" She wanted to make sure she wouldn't find out Chat's identity when she came back because his kwami had run out of energy.

"No pumpkins, only handsome prince's, but I'm already as handsome of a prince as you can get so there's no need to worry about that." He flirted.

"Ok then, I'll be back when I've finished eating. I'll also bring you your thank you present." Marinette smiled cheerily at him.

As she started to turn towards the trapdoor that lead to the rest of her house Chat called out

"Aren't you forgetting something, Princess?" Chat grinned slightly nervously.

"I don't think so" Marinette said, still walking to her trapdoor.

"Forgetting to untie me, perhaps?" Chat called, getting more nervous every step she took away.

Once she reached her trapdoor Marinette looked over shoulder and smiled innocently at Chat, "What, untie you so you can look through my stuff, read my diary and wreak all other types of chaos in my room?"

"Yes?" Chat looked sheepishly at her.

"Nah, I think I'll pass on setting you free for now." She grinned evilly as she disappeared down stairs. Chat was at that moment realising just how much trouble his cockiness may land him in when he spends time with Marinette. He never knew his shy classmate had it in her to strap one of Paris' super heroes to a booby-trapped chair while grinning like an villain , considering she could barely wave at Adrien without tripping over something. Now that he thought about it, Marinette was an amazing girl. She was kind, talented and it was hard to deny the fact that she was beautiful. Around Chat she acted a bit like what he imagined Ladybug would if she wasn't so bent on keeping their relationship completely professional, sassy, funny, relaxed and just an amazing person to spend time with. With Adrien she was more like a frightened animal that would run at the slightest wrong move. Marinette must really hate him, she wasn't like that with anyone else. Chat frowned, if he ever wanted a relationship with Marinette, he'd have to fix whatever he did as Adrien so that she would be comfortable with all of him...

WHAT THE _FUCK_ WAS THAT!? _If he wanted a relationship with Marinette_ , what the hell?! Chat startled himself with his thoughts so much that the chair he was in fell over. Nothing hit him, pierced him or hurt him in any way. _She must not be as good at traps as sh thought_ Chat internally smirked. He was about to untangle himself when he realised that her manikin, a bucket of water and a heavy looking box were all ready to fall on him if any of the string was pulled.

Downstairs, Marinette and her parents heard a thump from Marinette's room. "What was that?" Asked Tom.

Marinette inwardly chuckled, knowing that the noise was a certain black cat learning the true mechanics of her trap, but she just told her parents it was nothing. She wished she could see Chat's face.

If Marinette had been able to see Chat after he fell she may have called him an imposter. Chat lay on the floor, mulling over the train of thought that caused him to fall, a relationship with Marinette. Just the thought of it caused the boy to get flustered, a bright blush coating his cheeks that was visible, even with the mask. He kept thinking about if it was a good idea to pursue Marinette in a romantic sense. She was an amazing person and beautiful and talented and, and _way_ out of his league. _Wait what?_ He was Chat freaking noir! No one was out of his league, he could get any girl he so chose...

But Marinette wasn't just any girl. She was better than any other girl, he even dared to say she was above Ladybug. She was an ideal choice for him, his father couldn't argue, the two could bond over fashion and stuff... WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING? Introducing anyone to his father was like his ultimate show of faith in the person. If the person he introduced to his father still spoke to him after they met him, well the person clearly liked him enough to stick his dad for his sake. Hold on! Introducing his father would mean revealing his identity! He needed to slow down...

 **A/N Happy new year! I hope you enjoy it. Please reveiw and tell me what you think, I really enjoy reading them.**

 **Sorry the chapter took longer than expected, I managed to get grounded by my dad. I'm now ungrounded since I was enjoying it too much and my dad couldn't take keeping me grounded until May like he planned. I don't understand why people don't like being grounded, it's great fun! Anyway, isn't saying the word silence defeating the purpose?**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

By the time Marinette had returned to her room Chat had come to a sort of peace with his thoughts. Luckily, that meant he didn't get a really obvious blush every time he thought about Marinette and his feelings about her, Chat noir doesn't blush at the thought of a girl, he makes them blush. He would get to know Marinette, fix what ever it was that made her hate his alter ego so much and if he happened to fall for her in the process, he'd accept that and pursue her romantically. At least that was his plan, but as some say; plans are made to fail...

Marinette came into her own room to find Chat sprawled on the floor, underneath the chair that he was still tied to, just as she had expected. She giggled as she approached a disgruntled looking Chat noir, who was following her every move with his acid green eyes .

He gave her a half hearted glare, "I'm failing to see the humour in this situation, Princess."

"Your right, I shouldn't be laughing right now." She continued to laugh though, despite her words.

"Can you please help me out of this trap now?" He was getting rather bored of laying on the floor. He'd lost feeling in his legs and arms quite some time ago and he knew he'd have major cramp he got up. Marinette, walked straight past him, however and went to her bedside table. She had her back to him, but he could still see that she was still laughing and that she had grabbed something off the surface in front of her. When he could see her face again, his whole being flooded with ice cold dread. She had a smirk and a look in her eye and an overall appearance that Chat was sure strongly resembled the devil himself, or should he say, herself? Herself certainly seemed more accurate as she slowly started towards him. How on earth did he ever think she was a sweet and gentle girl? "P-princess, w-what are you planning?" He gulped as her smirk grew wider. "Don't you think I've been forced through enough trauma for one night?" For the first time ever, Chat was seriously questioning if it was a good idea to befriend Marinette, judging by today, it was a possible health hazard.

She walked a few steps closer and Chat was getting more and more nervous. His tail was lashing about and twirling it's self around his legs, while his ears had drooped down. Marinette could see his apprehension of what she was going to do. She loved the feeling that came with having him fear her next action. This whole thing was, as well as homework help for her, payback to the black feline for all his puns and flirting and the occasional pranks he had pulled on her. This was her payback and Gods was she enjoying it.

Chat was getting really agitated with the situation, there was only one person that he would allow to do this to him without making them regret it (while in the persona of Chat noir) and that person was Ladybug. Anyone else should expect to be pranked in the future, that included Marinette. **(A/N *facepalm *).** He would get her back for this, she would be sorry for what she has done and whatever it was that she was about to do, it sure as hell wasn't going to be giving him a nice piece of poetry.

Chat was right. All of a sudden, Marinette broke their stare off when she brought her hands out in front of her. Chat's eyes widened in horror at what he saw, in one hand she held her phone and the other held a water pistol, that was pointed at him.

Marinette doused her feline partner in water, while both taking pictures and laughing like a maniac. He yowled in shock and it sounded so much like his name sake. Chat tried to move out of the line of fire out. However, he found that he couldn't move very far since his movement had triggered the trap, he still flailed though which only served to further amuse Marinette. When she finally stopped her attack on the poor cat, she was still laughing. Chat looked at her with an expression that said 'this not nearly as funny as you think it is, you are being so juvenile right now. I'm disappointed in you, I can't believe we're friends' and it only served to make Marinette collapse on the ground in a fit of laughter.

While the young designer died in a puddle of hysterical laughter, Chat noticed that her water pistol had dropped out of her grasp and was just sitting on the floor a few meters away. He tried moving from under the manakin to find that it wasn't as heavy as it felt. He worked to shift himself from underneath it while being careful not to disturb anything that could alert Marinette to him. Once free Chat checked once more to make sure Marinette hadn't noticed his movement, then did a forward roll across her floor to the abandoned gun. He picked it up and started his revenge.

It took a second for Marinette to comprehend that she was now the one being soaked. Her laughter abruptly cut off and she looked up at Chat noir who was grinning like the cat that got the cream, or rather, the water pistol. "Pay back's a bitch, isn't it _Purr_ incess?" He purred. Chat decided that he could understand why Marinette had found this so funny, he liked the way she struggled around, trying to limit the amount of water hitting her. In fact, he was so caught up in the delight of turning the tables on her that he didn't notice her coming towards him, not until she had already tackled him to the ground. They started wrestling across Marinette's plush carpet, each trying to get a hold of the gun. Occasionally one of them would manage to spray the other, but each small victory was short lived.

The battle for the water pistol was filled with laughter, tricks and a comfortable banter that showed a deep friendship between them. The fight only stopped when Chat got full control of the gun. He'd pushed Marinette a good distance and prepared to finish the fight once and for all. "Surrender now, Princess, it's over, I've won."

"I won't ever surrender!" Marinette exclaimed as she made one last lunge for the plastic gun in Chat's grasp. He'd been expecting it and dogged nimbly out of her way.

"I gave you a chance to end this peacefully, but you leave me no other choice than to end this the only other way I can." He faked a tone of remorse into his voice. When he went to fire though, all that came out was a small, pathetic dribble that barely made it 30cm from where he stood. Chat noir tried again and much to his dismay, got the same result. He looked at Marinette, who had a victorious grin on her face,

"So much for a majestic victory." Her grin stayed in place, even as she stood up and walked up to him. She stopped when she was right in front of him. Marinette offered him her hand to shake, "I suggest we call this a draw and have a rematch some other time."

Chat reciprocated her grin, internally delighting about the implications of her words that said she wanted to spend more time with him. "I'll take you up on that _purr_ omise, Princess. Un _fur_ tunately, this knight in shining leather has to claw his way back to his own castle. The many wounds you inflicted me with will surely make this journey a mighty endeavour."

Marinette looked unimpressed, "It was only water, you drama queen." She rolled her eyes, but he could see her smile behind her eyes.

"Every blow felt like the sharpest of swords coming from you." He winked at her. "Would the lovely Princess care to give her knight a kiss to help him on the mighty odyssey ahead?" As he started to lean in Marinette used her hand to push his face away.

"No, I would not."She dead panned, "But I will give you this." Marinette retrieved a basket from by her trapdoor, how didn't he notice that? She then gave it to him. Chat, being a curious creature looked into the basket and gasped in delight. Inside was an assortment of pastries and other baked goods and treats.

"Thank you Princess!" He truly meant it as well. Marinette told him it was his payment for helping her with her physics, but he still thanked her again anyway.

The two then parted ways, Chat climbing through her window to race once again over the streets and rooftops of Paris. While Marinette went to bed with images of black cats in leather and blonde haired, green eyed models filling her dreams. She slept soundly that night.

 **A/N So, last chapter was Chat deciding that Marinette wouldn't be a bad choice of love interests. He still has no idea that he will/has fallen for her. I will make another one for Marinette, but hers will be a more gradual thing but I'll make it clear when she gets similar thoughts to Chat and she works out that it wouldn't be the end of the world for her to return his feelings (the one's he has/had on Ladybug). THEY ARE NOT CRUSHING ON THE OTHER (knowingly) YET! There will be a point where they both realise their true feelings at which point the story will hopefully take a different turn and become more romantic.**

 **Either way, I hope you found the water fight as amusing as I did, this fanfic has a lot of firsts for my writing like my poor attempt at humour and the future romance that I'm planning while sitting in a black swivel chair with my cat in my lap while I laugh like I just conquered the world (I already know I'm insane, don't worry). Anyway, see you next chapter.**

 **Using synonyms "Forgive me father for I have sinned" is technically the same as "sorry daddy I've been naughty"**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Adrien sighed heavily as he collapsed into the dressing room chair. He was at yet another photo shoot. It was the fifth this week, and it was only Wednesday. He knew that this time of year was important for fashion, it was nearing the time when the autumn line would start to come out, but he had other things to do. He had mount homework to climb, he had to save Paris from evil akumas as well as everyday evil, he had to patrol the city, he had to do his extracurricular activities, he had to go to school and he had to do these photo shoots. It was starting to affect his other duties. Adrien didn't care to remember the last time he had a proper undisturbed night sleep. His late night patrols had worn him down, especially since some of the photo shoots had been early in the morning. Some nights he had come in from patrol with his Lady, only to have to get up immediately because of a photo shoot. Akumas had been strangely nocturnal lately as well, them too keeping him awake. His grades were going to be affected soon as he was pretty sure he had slept through half of the lessons. The photo shoots always came when he wasn't doing anything else, no lessons had been cancelled due to them, he didn't miss any school. He didn't remember the last time he had hung out with his friends, though and that included Marinette with Chat. The last time he saw Marinette, he had told he was going to be very busy for awhile. It was a good job he had, this was the third week of non-stop everything.

Thinking of Marinette always made him feel a bit better. He knew she was waiting for her stray cat to return, he had heard her talking about him to Alya, not that she had known he was listening. She hadn't spoken his name but he knew she was talking about him and that made Adrien all the more determined to get this busy patch over and done with all the quicker. Adrien liked the thought of having a friend like Marinette and although he could be looking for something more romantic from her, he liked how she was friends with _him_ and not a mask he wore. His Chat charms never worked on her and it was as if she understood all his stress as a hero and spoke to him, not his mask. Adrien to him was more of a mask than Chat noir was. Chat noir was free to talk how he wanted, Adrien wasn't. Chat noir could go where ever he pleased when ever he pleased, Adrien could not. Chat noir could make mistakes, Adrien couldn't. The list went on and on, which is why he always valued Ladybug's, Marinette's and Nino's friendships so much, because they saw him for who he truly was and they didn't push him away or try to change him (except for over the top flirting and puns, everyone seemed to hate the puns). Alya didn't quite see past the rich boy model stuff yet, he wasn't sure Marinette did either but she did when he visited her as Chat noir which was enough for him.

Adrien didn't blame anyone for not seeing the mask, let alone seeing past it, since he knew it wasn't their fault. He blamed his father for most of it. His father didn't seem to love him, but rather loved the perfect model son he was trying to maintain. He had tried to deny it in the past, but he couldn't ignore the truth forever and even Plagg had tried to comfort him about his father (it had been the most awkward 15 minutes in both their lives and both had agreed to never speak of it again). It was Gabriel Agreste that had created the mask he was forced to live behind when he was a civilian and he hated it, having to hide his true personality behind a metaphorical mask until he was behind a literal mask. He felt so hollow sometimes, so trapped. His father held complete control of his life and Adrien hated it. Hated how he couldn't be himself, hated how he couldn't be like everyone else and despised how no matter what he did, it was always credited to his father. If he got good grades, his father had taught him well. If he was well behaved, his father had raised him well, so on and so forth. Adrien just felt trapped, like-

"ADRIEN!" Adrien was shaken out of his thoughts by Plagg directly into his ear. For a little creature, he could be extremely loud.

"What, Plagg?" The boy asked irritably. The lack of sleep was starting to make him very irritable.

"Your break is nearly over, you have about five minutes to get me my cheese before it's too late." Plagg told his charge.

Sighing yet again, Adrien complied with his kwami's wishes and got him some Camembert from the tightly sealed container that he always carried inside his bag. Adrien had learned the hard way to always have cheese, one rushed conversation with a cheese deli owner while being about to transform was enough for him.

After giving Plagg his cheese, Adrien went out of the dressing room and onto the set and resigned himself to several hours more of boring torture.

Meanwhile, halfway across the city, a very worried Ladybug was pacing on a rooftop and waiting for her partner. She had been starting to get very concerned about the black feline, although he had told her, both as Marinette and as Ladybug, to not worry. She couldn't help it though, he had been looking run to the ground on patrols, practically sleep running and fighting and it was starting to get dangerous. She could tell that something was up, he hadn't come to visit her as Marinette for ages and he didn't hang around after patrol. This time, however, it seemed as if he wasn't showing up at all. Ladybug hoped that he was getting some rest and not passed out in some dark alley way, injured after falling from exhaustion and surrounded by thieves, murderers, with Hawkmoth looming over him ready to take his miraculous and, and, and... She really needed to stop before she let her fear take over her mind. She sighed and decided to patrol alone that night.

Friday evening rolled around and Marinette was standing on her balcony and looking over the darkening city before her. She hadn't heard from Char noir for a week as Ladybug, she was beyond perturbed by this now, she was very close to panic. Marinette hadn't heard from Chat in three weeks. Not one word. No sign. No anything. What she wouldn't give to hear one of his stupid cat puns or see his cocky grin or just anything, really. Marinette missed Chat noir more than she would ever admit to anyone, including herself.

Marinette kept staring at the city before her for a good long time, thinking of the cat she had been getting so close with up until three weeks ago. They had become like best friends, nearly like they were when she was Ladybug, except she preferred it when she was Marinette, she didn't have to be so work first and could relax more. She sighed as she once again wished for her silly kitty to come crashing back into her life, followed by terrible puns and a wonderful friendship.

So immersed in her thoughts was Marinette, that she didn't notice the object of her thoughts landing behind her. Chat noir crept up behind the girl and once close enough, wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder and looked at the city with her. Considering her lack of reaction, it was clear she still hadn't noticed him, so he nuzzled his face into her shoulder and asked her "What are we looking for, _Purr_ incess?"

The reaction was immediate. Chat could feel her stiffen beneath him before she probably realised that the only person who could (and would) do this was the kitty behind her. Marinette shrugged her shoulders, not quite believing that Chat noir was really on her balcony and it wasn't some strange daydream. Seconds turned into minutes and the arms around her waist didn't disappear, neither did his presence.

"It's really you, isn't it?" She whispered hesitantly, "You really came back." Marinette was so relieved and happy he was there, tears pricked at her eyes.

Chat chuckled behind her, "Of course it's me. Who else would it be?" Chat joked about but it didn't mean that he was any less happy to be there.

Marinette suddenly turned in his arms to fully embrace him, her arms flew around his torso and her face was pressed into his neck. "Don't you ever do that to me again, Chat noir." Her voice sounded muffled by both his shoulder and the emotion clogging her throat.

Chat noir was taken aback slightly, his arms hanging limply by his sides. He didn't expect this from her, nothing like this at all. "Umm, what do you want me to not do? I'm slightly at a loss here." Chat really was. What had he done?

Marinette lightly hit his chest, not enough to hurt, but enough to show her frustration with him, "You left me!" Marinette may have been speaking but she knew she spoke for both her counterparts. "You left me for three weeks, with no word, no 'I'm okay', no nothing! I was so worried!" She kept clinging to him harder and harder, her hands tightly grasping at his back.

Chat noir was completely stunned though. The words 'I was worried' had not been spoken about him longer than he could remember. No one worried for him and vocalised it. He knew Ladybug cared, but with her professional attitude he knew she'd never admit it. Marinette though, he knew she was caring and knew they had grown to be the closest of friends but he never thought she would be this concerned about him. "I'm sorry." He returned the hug, getting over any shock, "I never really thought anyone except Ladybug would miss my presence around Paris that much. I guess I've never really had close friends, like you, to worry about while in the mask." Chat _paw_ sed and chuckled humourlessly before adding quietly, "I never really had friends to worry about me in general, actually."

He hadn't meant for her to hear that last comment, but as soon as he uttered it Marinette pulled back and looked him in the eye and told him firmly, "Well I worried about you. Don't ever say that no one would miss you if you disappeared, Ladybug would, Paris would, I would." She finished softly, looking at him with saddened eyes, a few tears slipping down her pale cheeks. Chat gently reached out to wipe away the tears. "Don't say no one cares, even if no one else does, I swear I will. No matter what it is I'll listen to you and be there for you." Marinette meant every word. Even though he was the hero of the two at times like these, maybe it was her that needed to save him. Save him from the shadows of his normal life in a way Ladybug would never be able to.

"Thank you." Was all he could get out. He could tell that she would stand by him through anything. "Thank you for everything." They both knew that he couldn't divulge all his secrets to her, no matter how badly he wanted to, because of the need for secret identities but he had still told her what he could about his home situation. A home where the walls were like the bars of a cage. A home that was kept in darkness by the looming figure of his father. He had told her about the lack of connection to his father, told her of all the heartache it caused him and all she did was sympathise and try to understand. They had never spoken of his civilian life much after because Marinette understood, without his telling her, about the pain it caused him. Chat noir knew that if he so needed it, Marinette would keep him safe from the demons in his life without so much as a questioning glance. She was all he had ever wanted in a friend...

 **A/N, Roll credits! That's it, shows over, thank you for reading... Ha ha. Like I could leave them as just friends, pfft, what kind of overly obsessive fangirl would I be if I did that? No, there's plenty more to come so buckle your seatbelts for the long MariChat journey to come.**

 **Also, while reading a different fanfic, I realised I haven't done a disclaimer, so I'll do it now.**

 **Ahem, I, Flyingpigacorn, do not own the cartoon Miraculous Ladybug and Chat noir, nor do I own the amazing characters and lets be honest, with the amount of MariChat fanfics, I barely own the plot. I recently read something that said there's like a sort of order for MariChat fics, and there really is. It's easy to notice once you've read enough of them.**

 **Once you've read the dictionary, everything else is a remix.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Marinette was sat at her desk working on her latest design. It was a black dress that would come down to her knees. The skirt would flow loosely out from the waist, while the top half would be quite form fitting and tight to show off her curves (not that she had many, but still, it wouldn't hurt to accentuate what she had), there was a subtle pattern on the fabric of swirls, birds, cats and paw prints. There was a vibrant green ribbon that tied around where the skirt would start hanging loose and a matching green choker for her neck that had a little gold paw charm. Although, try as she might to deny it to anyone who asked, it was deeply inspired by a certain black alley cat that had been visiting her an awful lot after the incident of him not visiting her for a while and worrying her so much. Marinette sighed as she finished sewing the hem of the bottom of the dress, she knew she should put it away soon, she didn't want Chat noir to see it. If he knew she was designing a dress inspired by him, she would never hear the end of it as well as his ego getting even bigger. Marinette put the dress away in her special hiding place that she knew even Chat wouldn't go into... her underwear draw.

Not even 10 minutes later a familiar thud was heard from her balcony, followed by a few taps on her trapdoor above her bed. "Hi Chat!" She yelled up, letting him know he could come in. He knew that if she didn't respond with his name then she wasn't alone and he should come back another evening.

"Good evening, _Purr_ incess." Chat greeted as he dropped down onto her bed. He looked around her room briefly and found the young designer sitting on her chaise, watching him expectantly while motioning for him to sit beside her. Chat noticed that she had her computer set up with some sort of film in front of the pink chaise and a large bowl of popcorn and a plate of baked goods set on a table in front of her.

"Come on Chat, I have a film for us to watch tonight" Marinette said with enthusiasm. Chat raised an eyebrow,

"Reeaally? And here was I thinking we were going on a picnic in Venice." He replied, sarcasm dripping off his tongue with every word. Marinette reached out and hit his arm, making him let out an exclamation of pain along with an indignant "Hey!" He just chuckled, though she had yet to stop mildly glaring at him, "So what are we watching, then?" He asked as he settled on the cushions next to her.

Marinette instantly brightened and replied enthusiastically, "Oh! It's this horror film. Alya has been trying to find a film that will scare me pretty much since we became friends. She says that this one will definitely scare me, at least a little bit and if it doesn't she said she's going to get me tested for being a psychopath. She is convinced I don't have a sense of fear since I've never so much as jumped at a horror film, ever." Marinette finished with a chuckle and looked at Chat noir, who had paled significantly. "Are you alright, Chat? You look a bit pale." She asked in concern.

The cat themed hero just chuckled with an obvious nervous edge to it and swallowed thickly, "Me? I'm fine Princess. Ha ha ha, why wouldn't I be fine?"

He was obviously not fine.

Marinette studied him intensely for a minute, trying to get answers as to what was bothering him. Chat shifted under her intense blue eyes uncomfortably. Not long later Marinette's eyes widened with understanding, "Chat, you're afraid of horror films, aren't you?" She gasped.

While Chat let out a slight choked noise as he denied her question, "What, me, the great Chat noir, afraid of a silly film? Yeah right." But despite his protests Marinette could see through his really bad lie.

"Yes you are!" Marinette exclaimed, she was starting to find this quite funny. She knew she couldn't know much about him because of identities and things, so when she learnt something about him like this it was nice for her. Plus in this situation, she could easily use the information as leverage latter on.

"No I'm not!"

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

"You so are!"

"I'm so not scared of a film. I'm completely fearless!" He proclaimed as he puffed out his chest.

"Fine," He let out a small sigh of relief, until. "Prove it then." Chat sucked in a sharp breath. He was doomed one way or another. But which should he choose? Keep his dignity and have nightmares for months. Or should he sacrifice his dignity and let Marinette have the knowledge that he is a complete scaredy cat but have peaceful, unhaunted dreams (besides the images of a super smug Marinette, of course). Chat decided that there was only one thing that he could do. One decision that would get him out with as little scaring and damage to both his mental health and his dignity...

 **A/N, Sorry for the short chapter. What does Chat choose though? Does he watch the film, run away with his tail between his legs, or does he 'accidentally' cataclysm that computer? Or maybe he does something else that I haven't mentioned just to throw you off the scent? Find out next time, but while you wait, why not review and tell me what you think will happen. I would like to see who comes closest to his whole plan ;)**

 **If you die in a living room, is it still a living room?**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Yes. There was only one way out of this situation. His dignity was at stake here. So Chat noir simply said "I told you, I'm not scared. Now start the film, I want to see the film that can supp _urr_ sedly scare the mighty _Purr_ incess." and grabbed a handful of popcorn. Chat said it brimming with confidence but he was forced to shove the handful of popcorn into his mouth to stop the groan of frustration at his own stupidity. He was pretty sure a small part of him died as those dooming words left his mouth. Mentally he face palmed so hard he thought it enterally possible for it to leave a physical mark.

Marinette simply raised a brow, not convinced in the slightest that he wasn't scared. "Have you ever watched something like this before?" She was very sceptical of him right now. She wasn't buying into his confidence, no matter how scarily convincing it was.

Chat blanched at her words, "Would you believe me if I said I watch at least one every night to help me sleep better?" He asked a bit sheepishly. Marinette simply shook her head, that being all the response needed. They both knew she wasn't convinced and knew that he'd never seen a horror film before.

"Well, if you've never seen a scary movie before, then I'll put on something milder. A kids one perhaps..." Marinette went into thought for a few minutes, trying to think of an appropriate film for someone who was just getting into the horror genre of films. Despite the irony of it, she didn't want to scare him out of watching horror again.

She kept thinking about what film would be best and was so lost in thought that she didn't notice Chat noir rearranging their positioning, starting the film Marinette had originally planned on watching. By the time Chat had finished skipping all the adverts and the film was just about to start as Marinette suddenly jumped and exclaimed "I got it!"

From behind her Marinette could hear Chat chuckling, but when she tried to turn around to look at him, she found she couldn't move very much. She looked around a bit, only to discover that she was leaning on one of the arms of her chaise so she propped up but from the waist down was laying comfortably. Marinette also discovered the reason for her restricted movement, a certain black cat had his leather clad arms wrapped securely round her waist and torso to keep her from moving away. Chat was behind Marinette with both of them facing the screen and the film which was starting.

Marinette began to try and wiggle free, saying she had a better film for them to watch, "Stop moving, Princess, and please be quiet, I can't hear the film." Chat complained to her.

"But you haven't seen a horror film before!" Marinette said, shocked "You might never sleep again, either that or will have to hide behind a pillow the whole time."

"I am most definitely going to watch this film, but I refuse to hide behind a pillow, my friends would never let me live it down." Chat told her, thinking of what Nino or Ladybug would say if he ever found out Adrien had hidden behind a pillow through a film . "However, I will hide behind you instead. I know you will protect me from anything bad." He told her with a smile on his face and in his voice. Marinette just rolled her eyes, grabbed a handful of popcorn and settled back into a comfy position.

Chat knew watching this was a bad idea. It was stupid. Idiotic. Moronic. It was the level of stupid that comes level to trying to bribe the pope with a prostitute. Chat thought though, that even if the film was something that came straight from Satan's arse on the terror scale, he at least had an excuse to cuddle Marinette. He'd been having a strange urge in recent visits to cuddle up to his Princess and hold her tight in his arms and never let her go. This was the _purr_ fect excuse to do just that.

Throughout the film Marinette didn't so much as blink at the masses of jump scares, didn't t look away or even cringe when there was a _very_ graphic representation of what happens when you put an active chainsaw in someone's stomach (bits and pieces of intestine and stomach and kidney and ugh, let's leave it at it could be described as explosive). Chat noir on the other hand, was a very different story indeed. Marinette could feel him jump at everything, even when the old lady accidentally knocked over a vase. She could feel him cringe and gag at bits like when a guy was hit where 'the sun doesn't shine' or the incident when the antagonist was forced to eat her disembowelled fiancé. Marinette had to stifle her giggles whenever she felt him flinch or hear him whimper in fear. Despite her amusement at his fear, she tried her best to comfort him, squeezing his clawed hands or whispering that it wasn't real or that she'd dangle the guy over her balcony.

…...

The next day at school, Alya went straight to Marinette when the girl turned up early (Chat had changed her alarm to wake her up three hours early and added alarms to sound every 5 minutes. She wasn't late. But that mangy alley cat was going to find that Marinettee could be much scarier than any film).

"Did you watch the film? Did you?" Alya asked excitedly, the young reporter was so sure that her friend would be terrified this time.

"Did she watch what?" Nino questioned, an equally confused Adrien beside him. The boys had come over when they saw Alya run up to a strangely on time Marinette.

"She wanted me to watch the new horror film, seeing if she could finally scare me with it." Marinette informed the boys, to which Nino just groaned,

"You're not still seriously doing that, are you?" The DJ asked. Both girls nodded, looking slightly sheepish.

"Umm, what's going on?" Adrien inquired, he knew a bit from last night with Marinette, but that was Chat, Adrien didn't know anything.

"It became apparent after a sleepover, that Marinette didn't get frightened by scary films or ghost stories or basically anything of that ilk. So naturally, everyone started to try find something, a story, film or even a 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house' that could make her so much as flinch. But that was like, three or four years ago, every once in a while someone will remember and try to scare her with something, but mostly it's forgotten. Even Alix and Kim gave up." Nino explained to Adrien.

"Haunted ghosty ghost fun house?"Was all he said, with a tone that questioned the sanity of every life choice that led him to that moment.

Marinette looked down, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck, "Yeah, that was, umm, a different experience..."

The other two were in a similar state of looking almost guilty. "That definitely was something, different..." Nino said.

"You could almost call it enlightening." Added Alya. They three shared a look and each gave a shudder, none of them elaborated on what actually happened, there had been an agreement that the incident was to never be spoken of in any detail ever again...

The rest of the school day was filled with Adrien badgering his three friends for an explanation as to what had happened to elicit such a reaction from them. Even the rest of the class wouldn't say anything, all saying something along the lines of it being a dark, dark time, or there being some kind of pact that prevented talk of the event. Even Alix and Kim, especially Alix and Kim wouldn't elaborate. When Adrien had asked Alix had visibly flinched at 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house' and Kim had gone white as if he had seen, well, seen a ghost.

It quickly became obvious to Adrien that the 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house' was a touchy and sensitive subject to everyone in his class. Adrien didn't let it go though, he was curious. He was also Chat noir, the black cat of bad luck, curiosity and cats go hand in paw. Adrien couldn't let this go, not until he had answers, the cat in him wouldn't let him.

Marinette could tell Adrien wouldn't let up until he found out what could haunt the whole class so much. It was yet another quality she liked about him. So, she came up with a plan to tell him, without breaking any of the rules of the pack of secrecy. At lunch she went home alone and consulted Adrien's schedule for when she could hatch her plan. Lady Luck was on her side it seemed (like always), since he was free after school that very day. Marinette could sort everything out quickly, the less time Adrien spent asking questions and bringing up memories best left forgotten, the better.

…...

Adrien was walking home from school, he didn't need to be anywhere so he told Gorilla he'd walk, while still thinking over the 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house' and contemplating how he would get the information he wanted out of his classmates. He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear the telltale _zip-zip_ of Ladybug's yo-yo until he felt a strong arm circle his waist and drag him into the air.

"Don't scream, don't make a fuss and this will all go swiftly and painlessly." The red spotted heroine told the startled model. Adrien did as told though and didn't make a noise as Ladybug carried them effortlessly over the Parisian rooftops. She soon set them down on a rooftop that was secluded and shrouded in shadow, despite the sun being high in the winter sky.

"As nice as it is to see you, Ladybug, is there a reason you brought me here?" Adrien asked. She had her back turned to him, but at his question spun round to face him.

Her face was deadly serious, "I have it on good authority that you have been asking after dangerous information." her tone indicated that there was no point in denying it, she already knew.

"Dangerous? All I asked was what a 'haunted gho-" Adrien was cut off by Ladybug's hand clamping over his mouth.

"Don't say it out loud. The less it is spoken of the better." She looked around, making sure they were alone before continuing, "But yes, that's why I'm here." She suddenly pushed her whole body against him, her mouth near his ear. The blonde could feel nearly all of Ladybug's toned body pressed against him. Her right hand passed him a slip of paper as she whispered in his ear, "Meet me at this address at ten o'clock. Come alone. But you must swear not to speak of this meeting, or what you see there to anyone, ever."

Adrien barely registered anything she said, too preoccupied with the fact that his crush was currently pressed against him in a position that probably looked very intimate. To answer her he just dumbly nodded. She then passed him another bit of paper but this time it was rolled up as a tube. "Read it over and if you agree to the terms, sign it. Bring it to our meeting later. If it's signed then you will get your answers, if not then we'll both walk away and never speak of this again. Understand?" He nodded again. With that she wrapped a red spotted arm around him again and swung them into an alley. Ladybug gave him a nod and left with another flick of her yo-yo.

Adrien watched her fly through the air with such practised ease and elegance. He looked at the two bits of paper and started to make his way back to his home.

 **A/N, Sorry for my recent absence, I've been working on other stuff. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The horror film isn't based on any existing film, not that I'm aware of anyway. Adrien still isn't quite over his crush on Ladybug it seems and I'm well aware that Marinette didn't stutter around Adrien. It is all part of my master plan MWHAHAHAHA!**

 **I'm also going to change the rating to T, as the plans I have for the future will require a higher rating. Not that many people care about the rating unless it's M. The story will not go to M though. If it does one of my friends will have written those scenes as I refuse to write lemons.**

 **Rejected exam question (history): Hitler got all his ideas from the history channel. Discuss.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Once Adrien got home, he went straight to his bedroom to read the pieces of paper Ladybug had given him. Upon entering his room he went to his bed and read the smaller bit of paper. It was an address, just as his lady had said it would be. The other was a tube that was obviously made a lot less recently than the first slip, it was yellowed a bit around the edges, with lots of creases and wrinkles as well as a few little tears. Adrien unravelled the tube carefully...

"Well that's disappointing." Plagg stated, from his position of hovering next to Adrien's shoulder. The scroll had a few paragraphs written in a neat, scrawling cursive. But what interested Adrien most was the list of signatures at the bottom of the paper. There were many names, most of which were people from his class. Ignoring Plagg, who soon flew off to find some cheese, the blonde model read the writing and discovered why none of his classmates were willing to tell him anything.

The main things the writing covered was that no one involved in the incident with the 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house' should ever speak of the events that occurred in great detail to anyone who wasn't directly involved with what happened. Even the contract, after reading it it was clear what it was, didn't give any information about what happened. The contract just swore all who signed it to secrecy over things that are mentioned with a frustrating lack of detail. Adrien looked over the signatures again, he noticed (after prolonged staring of a time that could be argued to be bordering creepy) that Marinette's signature matched the writing of the text perfectly. He smiled, it was another thing that he had discovered that he liked about Marinette, he liked her handwriting. It was a neat, looping and precise. It held a rhythm. It was... it was... Adrien sighed, it was weird and creepy and slightly stalker-ish how he was obsessing over Marinette's handwriting. She would no doubt be completely disgusted with him if she knew he was starting to obsess over her. _I mean, it's not like she would_ _ **ever**_ _be that infatuated with me in either of my personas._ He thought with a sigh.

Adrien grabbed a pen, ready to add his signature to the cloud of names already at the bottom of the page. Just before his pen hit the contract, he noticed a small print. He squinted to try and read it, since it was, well, small. He managed to get the gist of what it said. The small print said that for a signature to count, there must be at least one witness who understood what was being signed. He sighed yet again and decided to wait for the meet up with Ladybug to do anything to do with the 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house'. He could always find another way to occupie his time that didn't include pondering his strange classmates or his amazing partner in crime fighting.

Meanwhile, said spotted heroine, was frantically pacing her room (yet again) while contemplating all her recent life choices. Especially those that included cute blonde boys.

"Am I going mad, Tikki? I feel like I'm going mad." Marinette asked her kwami for the tenth time that half hour.

"Your not mad, Marinette, you can have more than one crush at a time. Your heart doesn't have to solely belong to one, until you're officially going out with one of them." Tikki tried to reason with her human. A task much easier said than done.

"I know, but I've had a crush on Adrien for so long that it feels like cheating just thinking of anyone else that way." Marinette sighed. She was getting wrapped up in her thoughts. More so than she probably realised. "It doesn't help that their both so similar, so sweet, thoughtful and caring. Even if one is a bit too flirty sometimes." She sighed again, running a hand through one of her pigtails in frustration, "And it certainly doesn't help that they're both so frustratingly handsome, I mean, I feel like it should be illegal to look that unfairly gorgeous. Both of them could easily be models, well one of them is, but still I-" She stopped herself, wondering why Tikki hadn't stopped her yet, the little red goddess of creation usually stopped her before she got this far into her rant. "I'm going insame, aren't I? I feel like I'm going insane."

"Well, you're certainly on the right path if you usually talk to yourself like this." A smooth, clearly amused voice chimed in from near her skylight on her bed. Marinette squeeked, going a bright, glowing crimson at having been caught ranting about her crushes by none other than one of said crushes.

"H-how much d-did you hear?" She managed to stutter out. Best case scenario, he heard just enough to think she was completely mental, worst case scenario he caught on that _he_ was one of her crushes that she was ranting about.

Chat chuckled, "Not that much _Purr_ incess." Marinette let out a sigh of relief. "But I would like to know, who are these two guys who are 'unfairly gorgeous' and 'sweet, thoughtful and caring'? It wouldn't be me, by any chance, would it?" It was quite fascinating to Chat to watch her face go from red to white, back to red again in a time that had to beat a few records. He chuckled again, coming closer to her. She backed up until her back hit her desk. Every step he took towards her, she seemed to go one shade darker red. By the time he was directly in front of her, towering over her, Marinette was so red it was a wonder she had any blood anywhere else in her body. He reached out towards her face, and she leaned back. When she could no longer go back, his hand finally made contact with her face...

"Poke!" He said as he gently poked her flaming cheeks, and flaming was definitely the right word for it. Chat noir could feel the heat of her cheek through the thick leather of his suit. He pulled back a bit after poking her so he could die of laughing on the floor.

...

Marinette just blinked in surprise, "Uh-h. What just happened?" She asked, looking so confused at everything that had just transpired. This only fuelled Chat's laughter. Marinette huffed and crossed her arms, clearly not anywhere near as amused as her feline friend was.

"Y-your face!" Chat managed out between his near hysterical laughing, "It was... so red!" He rolled around on her carpet.

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest while she let out a loud huff. "It wasn't that funny." She pouted. This only proceeded to making Chat laugh that much harder. It was a that point that Marinette got a devious idea. If Chat found her embarrassment funny, why shouldn't she reverse the situation and see if it really was that funny. She waited patiently for him to wear himself out, "You done now?" she asked when he stood back up a few meters away, Chat was still wheezing a bit but nodded nonetheless. Now, although Marinette may appear a nice, innocent girl, she wasn't _that_ innocent _._ She knew what boys were supposed to find attractive, she knew how to seduce a guy. Chat noir may have been known for being the biggest flirt and hottest guy, but she wanted to see if she could do it. Make him blush that is. Marinette would've tried this on Adrien, but he was her crush, Chat was different. She didn't have feelings for Chat noir in the romantic sense. **(A/N: I decided that if I'm going to have this story rated T, I'm going to have it that way for a reason other than mild bad language and my future plans.)**

"You know, Chat," She started as she walked towards the cat boy slowly, swing her hips deliberately as she she went. It quickly became clear to Chat that Marinette was no longer that sweet, cute, shy classmate, she was hot, sexy and confident and boy, did she seem to know it. He was staring at her as she advanced. He knew he was staring, but he couldn't quite drag his eyes away from the hypnotic sway of her hips and the dazzling smile on her lips. "gentlemen shouldn't laugh at a lady's embarrassment." The smirk on her red lips made Chat swallow, he didn't know why, but he wanted to kiss those lips right now. In fact, if she kept this up he was pretty sure he would have to pin her to her wall and show her just what she made him feel... Okay, that escalated a bit too quickly.

Chat stumbled back until he was against her wall. This was a mistake. Marinette kept coming toward him, just like he had a few moments earlier, except when she got in front of him, she didn't just poke his cheek, she went a bit further. She didn't know what part of her could ever think that this would ever be a good idea, but once close enough, Marinette slid her arms up the wall Chat was against, in a slow, strangely seductive manner until her arms were blocking him in. Despite Chat being the taller of the two, it seemed at that moment that the bluenette towered over her cat companion. She wrapped on leg up and around his hip, keeping him where he was. Although, she needn't of really bothered since Chat wasn't sure if he was physically capable of moving at that time, he was too frozen with shock. He hadn't a clue that Marinette possessed this much confidence. He couldn't help finding it slightly attractive. Chat's mind nearly ceased to function ever again when she leaned closer and in his ear, "You've been a very naughty kitty." she purred. Chat could feel himself go red, and to his utter mortification, he began to purr. Not in the way she had in his ear, no, he actually purred. It was a deep rumbling from his chest. Chat noir had never resembled Ladybug in colour quite as closely in his life before...

Marinette pulled away when she heard the purring. It surprised her, but one glance at the clock and she new she'd have to ask another time, it was nearly the time at which she'd have to meet Adrien as Ladybug.

"As much as I'd love to ask about the purring," She chuckled, letting out some of the laughter buried in her chest, "I need to go out soon, so you should probably leave, kitty."

Chat looked over at the clock and realised that he, too, needed to go. "Me too, Princess, has now got to sked _cat_ le." He punned in a vague attempt to save face. He knew it didn't work, but it was worth a try. They each said a brief goodbye and went what they thought were separate ways...

 **(A/N, Happy valentines day! I don't really celebrate valentines day, but for those who do, I hope you had a great day :). So, next chapter I will resolve this current issue with the 'haunted ghosty ghost fun house'.**

 **Did you know, in the human body there are enough bones to make a skeleton? Bet ya didn't. Anyway, till next chapter.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As soon as Chat noir was out of her bedroom Marinette transformed into Ladybug with a flash of pink light and in no time at all was racing towards her meet up point with her other blonde haired, green eyed crush. Running to beat a boy to a destination reminded her so much of all the nights that she had to race Chat to her home. She hadn't been caught yet, he seemed to always take some sort of detour on the way there. That doesn't mean there haven't been a few close calls though. Once Chat walked in nano seconds after the bright flash of her transformation faded away. Luckily he had been wearing sunglasses and was wearing a ridiculous baseball hat over his eyes, in one of his goofy attempts to act cool. A smile tugged at the heroine's lips thinking about her silly kitty and his adorable goofy, sweet, thoughtful self. A blush rose on her cheeks as she thought of how little that leather cat suit left to the imagination. Except for the identity of the cat themed hero. Although, she still sometimes (more frequently recently) wondered who the mask really hid. It scared her that she was willing to reveal herself and let him show her who he was. Ladybug was meant to be against a reveal, she always had been. But recently thoughts had begun to circle her mind, 'what ifs' and 'could bes'. It was driving her mad because Chat was in love with Ladybug, not her. Well she was Ladybug, but that's not the point. Chat loved Ladybug, the perfect, beautiful, supposedly benevolent and invincible mask that clumsy, shy and awkward Marinette wore.

Despite Chat's feelings for Ladybug being the only thing she was really sure about with him. Recently Marinette has begun to question that. He has toned down the flirting and he doesn't stare after her longingly all the time (she watches the Ladyblog and he's never been the most subtle person). Marinette wouldn't mind about Chat noir's relationships with other girls, she never has. So how come she feels a spike of jealousy tear through her gut at the thought of some other, prettier, girl cuddling with her kitty, the two of them being happy together and being a couple. She wanted that. The problem was, with who? Adrien or Chat noir? Both seemed so unobtainable.

…...

Adrien ran as fast as he could to the address Ladybug gave him. He knew from many experiences that she didn't take well to tardiness. Thinking of being late brought thoughts and images of an out of breath Marinette bursting through the classroom door. For some reason, her lateness has become endearing in a weird way in the last few months. He would never admit it, but, Adrien loved how adorable she looked red faced and out of breath. He just wished that she would be red faced and out of breath for a different reason, for example, because she was underneath him on his bed and he had just kissed the life out of her and they were going too... STOP... they were going to stop since this wasn't an appropriate time in the story for those thoughts and plus he had just reached the address on the slip of paper...

Adrien looked at the building and found that it was an abandoned warehouse. He cautiously entered, Adrien trusted Ladybug but that trust didn't extend to anyone that may be lurking in this place. Inside was quite dark, despite the sun outside, with the odd ray of light hitting the floor through broken, dirty windows that were here and there. Overall, it was the perfect place for a dodgy drug deal or other illegal business to go down.

"You know, it did seem like a good idea to talk here at the time, now I'm thinking we should've met in a secluded part of the park's gardens." Adrien whipped around to see Ladybug walking casually out of a shadow, a look of humour in her eye. "If you ever need to conduct business and need to give off a shady vibe, I guess this would be the perfect place."

"I could never invade a lady's secret get away place." Adrien replied with a bit too much Chat noir seeping through the edges.

"Well, I give you permission to use this place whenever." She gave him a wink as she walked passed him, beckoning him to follow with a wave of her hand.

The blonde watched after in a slight daze for a few seconds, watching her walk away yet again. But this time he didn't feel sad, instead a picture of a different blue haired girl popped into his head. Marinette. She kept appearing in all his thoughts, seemingly more and more often. Plagg kept saying that Adrien loved her, but that can't be it. His plan may have involved falling for her, however the plan was discarded a couple of months back when he realised it was pointless trying to plan his feelings (Plagg had made him watch a few weird chick flicks and gave him a small lecture on how feelings weren't to be planned or messed with, mainly since it messed with the drama that he enjoyed). To be completely honest though, he wasn't sure if he could ever look Marinette in the eye after today. Adrien had had no idea she could ooze confidence and be like that. Just the thought of her, with that smirk and swinging her hips like that while she walked towards him, it was starting to produce a small problem further south that he was proud to say wasn't all that small...

"Are you coming?" Ladybug called over her shoulder, snapping Adrien out of his embarrassing (or potentially so) thoughts. He hurried after her while apologising and flushing a light red. They walked outside into a secluded overgrown back yard type area. The red clad heroine sat down in the sun, patting the ground to signal for him to sit as well.

Never one to wait around, Ladybug got straight down to business, "Have you got the contract?"

"Yes." Adrien said as he handed it over.

"I trust that you've read it through carefully and understand what it is that you are signing." She asked. Ladybug was being very professional about this whole thing, very business like. It made him wonder if she was really a business woman or something in her other life. She pulled out a pen from out of thin air and handed it to the blonde boy. "Please sign at the bottom where everyone else did, so long as you fully understand and agree to the terms written."

Adrien nodded and signed the parchment. The bluenette quickly swiped the paper away and rolled it up, putting it some invisible, bigger on the inside pocket that was located somewhere on her suit (Adrien had never worked out any specifics of the mysterious pocket, just that it often was very handy when facing down akuma). She gracefully stood up and held out her hand to him, he took it and she pulled him up, "Come on, we'd better get going if we want to get there this week." She joked.

"This isn't the place?" Adrien asked confused. He had presumed that she would only show him after he had signed but he hadn't even thought that it wasn't here in this abandoned warehouse.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" She asked with a raised eye brow, "I'm not going to lead you directly to a place that you need to sign a contract to see, especially when you may not have signed it."

Looking at it, she did have a point...

"Good point. Umm, how are we getting there?"

"That's easy," She gave him a radiant smile that could light up half of Paris. "follow me."

Ladybug led him up to the roof of a nearby building and then pointed to the edge, "Look down there." Adrien crept, slightly unsure of where the red spotted heroine was taking this. He looked down and just saw an ordinary, Parisian street, filled with people going about their day, oblivious to what was going on just above them. Oblivious, that is until Adrien let out a loud shout of alarm. The good citizens of Paris that were walking passed looked up at the sound and were met by what was possibly a once in a life time sight. They saw the famous and popular model, Adrien Agreste being carried over the streets of Paris by non other than their heroine, Ladybug, who was laughing as if she had just kidnapped the poor boy, who was blushing and yelling at the masked girl to ask if she could carry him or at the very least give him a bit of warning next time. All in all, no one was concerned. The two heroes of Paris could often be seen taking people from place to place using their famous weapons, there just wasn't usually that much fuss, as well as the person wasn't usually well known.

Ladybug continued to carry Adrien across the city of lights as if he were just a sack of potatoes for nearly ten minutes. The young blonde gave up on his protests quickly, once he realised he was drawing more attention by kicking up a fuss and that all resistance was futile considering he was being held captive by a girl who had strength that no doubt surpassed Marinette who could dangle him off a roof. When they landed Ladybug set him down gently while saying,

"You know, your much too light." It was obvious it was a joke, but there was a hint of seriousness behind her words.

"Yeah yeah, I know, model diet..." Adrien trailed off halfway through his comeback. The surroundings, they would make anyone react with some colourful language. Adrien was no exception, "WHAT THE *insert swear word here* HELL HAPPENED HERE?! IT LOOKS LIKE A *insert swear word here* OSTRITCH *insert swear word here* *insert swear word here* BLEW UP A *insert swear word here* JELLY FISH THAT HAD A *insert swear word here* CHILD WITH A RHINOSEROUS THAT *insert swear word here* *insert swear word here* HAD A ANAPHLICTIC SHOCK WHILE DRUNK! WHAT THE *insert swear word here* *insert swear word here* HELL?! NOT ALL OF THIS COULD'VE BEEN LEGAL, **THIS *** insert swear word here* *insert swear word here* CAN'T BE LEGAL!" To say the sight was shocking would be a *insert swear word here* drastic understatement. There was a very good reason for the contract, for the word of this place to never be allowed to spread. It was like every nightmare possible thrown together, using a fear of kitchen sinks as super glue. It took a long time for Ladybug to explain what had happened, but it did not take long, however, for Adrien to swear to never be afraid of a measly horror film again. Nothing, **NOTHING** , was more terrifying than this...

 **(A/N, So... I might have gone a bit over board with caps lock, but I'm pretty sure I got my point across. Sorry this has taken so long, I spent quite a bit of time over the week holiday I just had finishing RWBY. If you haven't watched it I recommend it, but be warned, I, along with a few friends, did end up crying both metaphorical and literal tears over some characters. I would like to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives during the fall of Beacon, RIP.**

 **On a different note, t** **here's a fine line between obsessive and compulsive. It's called a hyphen. Until next time, faithful readers.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 **(A/N, As a short notice the start of this chapter is a short kind of filler type thing. It would've been a separate chapter but it wasn't long enough, so I decided to put it here. Its set a bit in the past, long before last chapter, but the rest is back in chronological order.**

 **I don't know if any of you fellow writers have this problem, but I recently gave my uncle access to my writing here online and it feels so awkward. I mean, I'm totally fine letting however many random strangers read my writing, but letting family or friends read it is just embarrassing. I don't know if its because friends and family's judgement on my writing matters more to me (no offence complete strangers) or if its because my writing is like an extension of my personality. Though that last one doesn't show why I'm fine posting it. I've rambled enough though. Hello Uncle, if you get this far because I am pretty confident you haven't watched Miraculous Ladybug making this pretty much nonsense. I did warn you.**

 **Also, bad pun time! A fart in a lift, it's wrong on so many levels.**

Marinette and her kitty had started to get along famously ever since Chat noir had landed into the young designer's life. They were best friends. The two shared a closeness they didn't normally have with the other and they both treasured it dearly. They had worked out a system using Marinette's many different flowers, if white flowers were in the spot closest to the trapdoor them Marinette was free and in. If the flowers were red then a friend was over, that friend usually being Alya, or Marinette was going to be busy that night. Yellow meant she was expecting someone would likely interrupt them. The system had a few other added pieces and stuff, but you get the idea. The two teenagers got to a point at which they were so comfortable with each other that so long as the flowers were white then Chat would walk right on in. Marinette was very diligent with changing the flowers because of this.

Chat noir making himself at home, so long as he had the all clear had led to quite a few times at which Marinette would be coming back into her room after getting a drink or something and be started by a "Howdy _Purr_ incess! Lovely weather we're having." or once, "You know this answer is so wrong it should be right." as he pointed to her physics homework. But she soon got used to it (to Chat's annoyance as he liked watching her jump at his sudden appearances the one thing that could make her jump) and would come in, a greeting to her stray alley cat on her tongue. Their strange routine didn't last too long though. It stopped once and for all after a certain incident. It was bound to happen eventually. This is what happened...

It was a nice Friday afternoon and Marinette was alone in her room, except for Tikki. She was expecting Chat noir to turn up soon, since he wanted to spend time with her (like usual) but would be busy over the weekend. She had just got home from school, greeted her parents, who gave her a plate of chocolate chip cookies and croissants as she passed. So, since she wasn't expecting Chat for a while yet, Marinette decided to do her homework and revise for her up coming history test. Being Ladybug and saving Paris every other day didn't leave much room for school work.

She finished everything quicker than expected, turns out she remembered more from class than what the back of Adrien's head looked like. With plenty of time to spare Marinette decided a shower sounded like a great idea after the long day she's had. Yes, she'd have a nice long, relaxing, warm shower, just what she needed to celebrate another successful week of not punching Chloé.

Marinette took her time, relishing in the hot water pouring over her body, but all too soon she decided she had to get out. Chat always complained if she took too long to get to him. The bluenette dried herself off and wrapped herself securely, not wanting one of those cliché anime scenes where the girl's towel falls down because she wasn't expecting her love interest to be in the room... not that she thought of Chat noir as a love interest, of course. But her point still stood, it would be embarrassing for her to flash her partner like that... Or at all really.

When Marinette entered her room she was kind of surprised that her alley cat wasn't in her room, looking through her homework or curled up on her bed taking a cat nap. She found it kinda strange but shrugged it off, knowing he'd come over at some point that evening. The flowers outside were white, so he would know he could enter upon arrival.

Marinette started looking through her drawers for some clothes. She got out a set of pale pink pyjamas that were long sleeved to accommodate for the cold weather. She also decided that it would be nice try out the new set of undergarments she had made. Marinette usually left that section of things alone but she was struck by inspiration and couldn't help herself. The set made up of a bra and panties was black with neon green frills and trim around the edges. They also were dotted with the occasional green paw print. They weren't inspired by Chat noir at all though. Nope. Not in the slightest...Okay, they were completely inspired by him.

Marinette studied herself in her full length mirror to see how her designs looked. She was pretty happy with them, to be honest. They were a perfect fit. Marinette was just finishing checking her work, when none other than Chat noir in all his leather wrapped glory pranced in through the trap door,

" _Purr_ incess, I'm so sorry I'm running late. You'd never guess what happened to me on the way here-" Chat cut himself off when he noticed Marinette was standing in her room, staring at him wearing nothing more than a bra and a pair of panties, both of which were him themed. They both stood gawking at each other and turning various shades of red. Chat briefly noticed that she had a really toned body and wasn't so much cute as hot as hell. He soon came to his senses and looked away. What can he say, a gentleman to the end. "I'm er, just umm, gonna... er, go..." He said as he fumbled around since he had closed his eyes and was too flustered to think of opening them. Chat eventually climbed out and ran all the way back to his mansion where he nearly died of a nose bleed from what he saw.

Meanwhile, back at the bakery, Marinette stood stock still for over five minutes before collapsing on her bed and hoping to die of embarrassment. She was thankful when Chat noir didn't show up again for about two weeks.

Needless to say, things were slightly different between the two from then on, there was always this underlying tension that was just waiting to break. You could say that this incident was the moment when Marinette first started to realise her crush on the goofy kitten. It could also be seen as the moment when Chat really started falling for the shy girl. All in all, the biggest lesson they learned was to always, _always_ knock before entering.

 **(A/N, end of filler bit. Hope it a _mew_ sed you as much it did me. I regret nothing! Except maybe, school, this chapter, this story, last week, my terrible decisions, my habit of procrastination and my entire life... Okay, maybe I do regret something. Any whoo, on with the story)**

 **LBCNLBCNLBCN**

Two weeks had passed since Marinette had last seen Chat noir. There was no apparent reason for it either. She was getting worried. It wasn't like last time he had disappeared, no, this time he showed up for patrol, mentioning nothing to Ladybug about being too busy to go visit her alter ego. He did seem distracted though and strangely, for lack of a better word, sad. Chat kept looking into the distance, or scanning the crowd as if looking for someone. Ladybug was starting to get annoyed with this new attitude as well, he wasn't punning anywhere near enough compared to the normal witty alley cat she was used to. Every time she tried to get answers from him though he would just shrug off the question or briefly assure her he was alright, which happened to have the exact opposite effect.

Marinette's head hit her desk with a loud clunk as her thoughts went back round the cycle of information regarding her silly kitty partner and what ever was bothering him.

"Are you alright girl? That one sounded painful." Asked Alya from beside her the journalist barely keeping her laughter at bay. The girl knew her friend wasn't being bothered by something too serious, the noise that came from the desk meeting Marinette's head would've been more of a thump rather than the clunk that resounded from the collision. Alya had learned to keep track of the different sounds Marinette's forehead made when connecting the hard surfaces, it happened so much she could predict the gravity of the situation to an accuracy of around 95% from just one hit. The bluenette just groaned (a sound Alya could interpret as 'yes') and hit her head on the desk again. Alya couldn't help but laugh at the girl this time, "Your going to get brain damage if you keep doing that."

The noises from behind them caught the attention of Nino and Adrien, the latter looking quite concerned about the bluenette. Said girl would've been delighted at this fact, except for the fact that she was currently in turmoil over which blonde she truly had feelings, oh, and the fact that she was at the time face down on her desk, hoping the world would melt away if she didn't look for long enough. By this point, Marinette had admitted that she might just have the tiniest of crushes on her alley cat. It was all driving her crazy.

"Is she alright?" Adrien asked, the concern on his face evident in his voice. That was another thing driving her crazy Adrien had started being more concerned about her, being more thoughtful and trying to talk to her more and frankly while her dream come true, it wasn't fair that she kept thinking of Chat noir. It really wasn't fair how his extra kindness towards her was making him seem even more attractive to Marinette. She was going to be killed as a direct result of a blonde haired, green eyed boy one way or another.

 **LBCNLBCNLBCNLBCN**

It was a beautiful night, the stars were shinning in the sky along with the crescent moon. The two heroes of Paris had just finished their patrol. They had met on their usual meet up point on top of the Eiffel tower, over looking the city that they fought so hard to protect.

"Well, I didn't see anything tonight, how about _mew?_ How was your _paw_ trol?" Chat noir asked his partner.

Ladybug was studying him carefully, tonight she was going to try a more direct way of getting answers out of him. It was driving her crazy and starting to affect her school work. Enough was enough. "Yeah it went good. No disturbances tonight."

"Alrighty then, this cat best hit the hay." Chat said, giving Ladybug a wink.

As he tried to leap off the tower, the red spotted heroine grabbed his tail preventing him from going anywhere. "Oh no you don't kitty." She pulled him back over the rail. She then flung him against a pole near the centre of the platform. Before Chat noir could register what was happening, he was securely tied to a pole by Ladybug's yo-yo. It reminded him of the way another blue haired girl had tied him up. The thought of Marinette brought a strong blush to his cheeks, luckily his mask hid it. Every time he thought of the girl though, he would always get flustered, images of her hips swaying as she walked towards him, her leaning close whispering in his ear...

He was abruptly snapped out of it when Ladybug slammed her hand next to his head, "Alright, I've tried being nice and polite but I think its time for the direct approach." Chat gulped nervously. "What is going on with you?" She asked, concern almost palpable as she looked at him.

"Nothing, I told you." He said, not able to look her in the eye.

The heroine rolled her eyes. "Nothing my miraculous. Now tell me." She demanded gently. When he still didn't answer she sighed. "Your not making this easy are you?" Chat grinned slightly, but there was a hint of nervousness behind his eyes. She sighed again, looking deep into his eyes, as if searching for her answers in the deep green pools. "I know you don't want to tell me, but I'm worried about you. What ever it is, it's starting to affect you as a hero of Paris and I've had pull you out of danger far too much lately." Chat looked away, knowing she was disappointed with him. She probably didn't even want to be partners any more. He was such a screw up, always messing everything up. He couldn't even face the girl he had a crush on just because she was hot. But to Chat's surprise Ladybug said, "I'm just so worried, I mean, what if I can't get to you on time? Or I manage to miss the fact that you are in danger? What if-" She was cut off by Chat,

"Don't, M'lady. You always pull through in the end." He reassured her. The leather clad hero continued in a soft voice, "I should be defending myself. Its not your fault I'm a lousy partner, not worthy of being by your side." He sighed. "I can't seem to do anything right."

The resounding sound of a slap could, Hawkmoth thought, be heard across all of Paris...


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Chat gingerly lifted his hand up to his now sore cheek. There was a bright red hand print shaped mark from where Ladybug had just bitch slapped him. **(A/N, bja133, oh yes she did.)** He stared at her, completely dumbfounded as to the fact she had just slapped him. _Hard_. Even on the other side of Paris, from where he watched, Hawkmoth could practically feel the force of that hit. Heck, he might as well of been able to still hear the echo it made. Both father and son were equally shocked and confused.

"How dare you?" Ladybug asked him, her words were spat at him. Hawkmoth decided he would stop watching at that moment, before things got ugly. An angry Ladybug was quite the force to be reckoned with, even he, the great Hawkmoth, supervillain of Paris, trembled slightly at her wrath. He had decided long ago that whom ever dated or even maybe married that woman was a far braver man than he was. Hawkmoth was resolved to give that man his full respect. Even though they weren't dating **(A/N, yet)** Chat noir also held a certain amount of his respect for being the feisty girl's partner.

"How dare you?" She repeated, glaring daggers at the cowering cat that she had started to grow so fond of. Looking at Chat now, seeming slightly scared and so vulnerable reminded her of a conversation with him when she was Marinette that had happened quite awhile ago.

 _ ***Flashback ***_

 _Marinette was laying on her bed, sewing the sleeve of a new jumper onto the main body, while Chat noir laid beside her, curled up in a way that so closely resembled a real cat. They were mindlessly talking, like usual, while she sewed and Chat rested since he had had a busy week. The two enjoyed each others company to the point that talking wasn't a necessity any more, just a reflex to block out the silence that they both knew Chat hated so much. He didn't talk often of his normal life to her, as either Ladybug or Marinette, but when he did she always got the impression he was lonely and quite controlled. Thoughts about Chat as a normal person, a person without a mask, led her down the path of wondering what h was like out of the mask. He always seemed cheerful with very few exceptions. She wondered if he was still that happy, pun loving, goofy kitty she knew when he wasn't donning his ears and tail. Marinette knew first hand how having a mask to hide behind could influence you, allow you to change your personality, to ignore the parts of yourself you didn't like and be somewhat free about who you wish you were. Marinette wondered what parts of himself he allowed to shine through the black mask and what parts he shut up inside until the mask released them back to outside viewing. It occurred to Marinette that no matter how much he trusted her, she might never know all of him. The idea she might not know who her friend really was brought a frown to her face, it made her sad to think of this._

" _What's bothering you,_ Purr _incess?" Chat broke through her train of thought, cataclysming the depressing thoughts immediately. She smiled and assured him it was nothing. He wasn't buying though, there was still a hint of sadness in her mesmerizing blue eyes. "I can tell something's upsetting you and I will find out what, one way or another, so you might as well just tell me what it is."_

 _Marinette sighed and set down her sewing onto her bedside table. "Its silly, really. I... It just is suddenly bothering me a bit. I'm sure I'll forget about it soon enough." She didn't seem to convince Chat of anything, since as soon as she had finished speaking Chat crawled closer to her and plopped down (with a bit more force than necessary) onto her legs and wrapped his strong arms around her waist, watching her closely with those toxic green eyes of his._

" _What is suddenly bothering you? Its obviously not something your going to forget anytime soon." If nothing else, Chat noir was very persistent._

" _I was just thinking, wondering, if I really know you." Marinette explained, looking slightly uncomfortable._

 _Chat blinked at her, "Of course you know me. Who do you think has been coming to visit you all these nights? Jagged Stone?" he asked, not quite getting the point._

" _No, not like that. I mean, do I **know** you. I- I've spoken to Ladybug quite a lot, we know each other pretty well." Marinette knew she wasn't technically lying but she still didn't feel right, deceiving her kitty like this. "We spoke once, about how she isn't the same person when in and out of the mask. She said she holds far less grace and confidence when she's not being her hero self. I was thinking that I don't know all of you. I don't mean to sound pushy or like I-" Marinette was swiftly cut off by Chat's clawed finger at her lips. He looked deadly serious,_

" _I would never think of you as pushy, Princess. Do you want to know my identity?" He asked her, no trace of his usual humour in his eyes or voice._

" _I guess, I mean I'm pretty sure everyone in Paris wants to know." Marinette answered. "But even if you were willing to reveal yourself to me, I couldn't let you." Chat's eyes widened a fraction before she continued, "Not until Ladybug knows, anyway. She should be the first to know."_

 _He grinned at her, "This why I could never think badly of you, your too thoughtful of others feelings." They both chuckled at that, both remembering all the times Chat had scolded her for being too selfless._

 _The two companions lapsed back into a peaceful silence, going back to how they were before, until a while later Chat said, "If it's any consolation, Chat noir is a better representation of me than my civilian self." Marinette looked at him slightly confused. "In my normal life, I'm very controlled and restricted. Chat noir, this mask, is my escape from that. I know I can be myself like this. It's kind of ironic that something meant to hind me lets me be more free than I am without."_

 _They continued talking about Chat's civilian personality and how Marinette would probably be disappointed by the normal him, much to her protestations. Marinette comforted him throughout the conversation, assuring him he would be her kitty no matter what. They spoke of all their insecurities, but each withheld a few. Marinette didn't speak of her struggle with her feelings towards two blonde boys, while Chat didn't tell her of his romantic struggles._

 _ ***End of Flashback ***_

Ladybug couldn't help but be fond of her black alley cat, in a way that was starting to become less and less platonic every time he dropped by. She was snapped out of her flashback by her partner's wavering voice, "Wha-what have I-" but was quickly cut off by the red spotted heroine who made a noise that was somewhat akin to the growl of a feral cat.

"Don't give me that. You know exactly what you did." She nearly spat at him, still glaring into his green eyes. "I don't care about your insecurities. I don't want to know what you believe you are unworthy of. I don't give a dam about who you are outside of your cat mask or what you've said and done." She fixed him with her blue eyes, trying to force him via the shear force of her glare to understand her. Ladybug wanted, no she _needed_ him to understand what she was saying. "I and I alone choose who I am friends with. You, "She poked his chest with one finger. "do not get any say in how much I value our friendship, how much I value you. You get no say and right now I'm very happy about that because I'm not completely sure that you would put enough worth yourself and your role in our partnership. I'm glad I can choose my relationship with you, it allows me to choose to be your equal,your friend."

By the end of her grand speech, Ladybug was watching Chat with soft eyes, full of care and friendship. All the while he looked back at her completely dumbfounded. Chat noir had had no idea she felt that strongly about their partnership, about how he viewed himself.

"I-I value our friendship too, Bug. More than you could ever know. Your one of my best friends." He struggled to speak passed the massive lump that had grown in his throat.

She smiled gently at him, "Good," the red clad heroine then released Chat from his restraints and he collapsed onto the floor with an 'oof'. "Cause your not getting rid of me any time soon." She gave him a playful wink as she helped him up to his feet. Ladybug held onto his hand as they stood there watching each other, on top of the Eiffel tower, as a soft breeze caressed their hair. "Are you ready to tell me what's been bothering you so much now?"

Chat nodded, although somewhat reluctantly. The two sat side by side on beam of the famous monument with their feet dangling over the precariously high drop below. Chat heaved a massive sigh, letting the air back out slowly. "I've been going through a bit of a rough patch with my father recently." **(A/N, I literally just added this in to fill a hole in my plot, except that it opens the hole of how this hasn't been mentioned at all before... but I'll pretend like I meant to do that... Yeah, this totally all thought out and properly planned...)** Chat started, "He has been complaining about my declining enthusiasm for mo-...for my...er... for my part time job." Chat stuttered uncertainly near the end, luckily he caught himself before he could say 'modelling', he didn't want to give away his identity without Ladybug's consent to do so. Although recently, he hadn't been dreaming of showing Ladybug who he really was, but rather his princess, Marinette. Chat couldn't seem to help wanting Marinette to be the first to know, even though he knew Ladybug had the right to know first, Marinette said so as well. "My dad expects perfection and nothing less than perfection. Its just so hard sometimes to live up to all his expectations." He looked over at his partner only to be met with two deep blue pools filled to the brim with sympathy that was mixed with a swirling sadness. She gently placed a gloved hand on his shoulder.

"Your not perfect, Chat." Ladybug told him, feeling her beloved partner stiffen beneath her fingers. "Your not perfect and neither should you be. No one is perfect, I'm not, your not, your dad's not. No one is. Don't beat yourself up over unobtainable gaols and expectations. Perfection is nothing more than an illusion. If something is perfect then it should have no flaws, but that leaves it with no character, nothing to make it stand out form the crowd. Having no character is also a flaw in itself. So how can you be perfect, when perfection doesn't truly exist?"

"Thanks, Ladybug, I'd never thought of it like that." He sighed, "But that's not what has been bothering me most as of late. I have gotten over not being able to please my father, to always be a disappointment to him." Chat held up a hand before she could protest to his words. "Especially since I have long since accepted that I can't be perfect without changing who I am and I'm not prepared to do that for anyone, except one or two special people, like you." They shared a smile at his words.

"Then what has been causing you to always seem so distracted?"

"Ah." Chat looked away sheepishly, a bright blush starting to cover his cheeks. "That would be my father's sudden pestering of me to get a girlfriend."

Ladybug blinked, she had not been expecting that.

 **(A/N, I must admit that I wasn't expecting it either until I wrote it, my planning is so good and intricate that I have to ignore it and write what comes to mind. All these random cliff hangers are really starting to _bug_ me. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it. **

**I also want to clarify something. While friends and family's opinions do mean more to me than you guys, probably because I can ignore your hatred while those close to me I can't ignore quite as easily (although I can still give it my best shot), I still really appreciate all the support you guys give me. I love going to my email and finding notifications of people favourite-ing or following my story, I especially enjoy reading your reviews. It makes me so happy and gives me motivation to write more. I was reluctant to post stuff online because of hate and the other stuff you hear about cyberbullying and things, but everyone on here seems really nice and its always good to know people enjoy my writing and are reading it. So, I'd like to give thanks to the 128 people who have followed this story and the 79 who have fauorited. You guys are all amazing so keep doing whatever it is you do in your life, be happy and keep being a fangirl/boy. Most importantly, keep being miraculous.**

 **If i were to kill myself would that be self defence? I would be killing the person trying to kill me.**


	16. Chapter 155

**(A/N, warning, shit shall hit the fan in this chapter. I'll give warnings when it will all start going downhill.)**

 **Chapter 16**

Ladybug blinked, she had been expecting many things but that...that had not been one of them. "Well, I am sure you could get any girl you choose." She said with confidence.

Chat looked at her with gratitude, "Yeah, I guess. The problem is is that its not just any girl I'm after. She's really something else, so special compared to most girls." Chat noir said wistfully, images of Marinette flooding through his mind.

Ladybug looked at her lap, slightly dismayed to learn she had a potential love rival, "I'm sure you could get her. What's her name, if you don't mind me asking."

"Her name's Marinette, you know, the girl I've been spending time with while I'm in the mask." Chat told her, looking longingly in the direction of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, not seeing the look of hope that sparked into Ladybug's eyes, "Yeah, I think I love her, Bug, I really do. The only problem is that you still hold a large portion of my heart, but Marinette is quickly getting that as well. She could never love me though, she deserves so much better than me.."

"She does love you!" Ladybug burst out, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth to stop anything else spilling out. **(A/N, shit aimed and ready in the catapult.)**

"Really?" Chat exclaimed, excited that his love could be requited after all. The ladybug themed heroine just nodded. Chat quickly got to his feet and got out his baton, readying himself to leap away into the Parisian night.

"Where are you going?" Ladybug questioned him. Chat looked at her. He quickly swooped down and pecked her on the lips. It didn't last long, but the affects were as if they had shared a full on make out session. Ladybug went a red that put her suit to shame, opening and shutting her mouth in a good impression of a goldfish and let out a squeak that sounded so adorable that Chat nearly squealed himself, except for the fact that he was so mortified at the time for actually kissing her. Especially since he had just confessed of his love for Marinette, another girl.

"I-I've got to go confess to Marinette!" Chat was not going to wait around to let Ladybug remind him that she would be asleep since it was about 1 in the morning, Chat noir was on a mission to get the girl who haunted his dreams.

"Wait!" Ladybug called after him, but her desperate tone fell on deaf ears. Ladybug facepalmed, knowing that the girl he was going to confess to had been standing right next to him... WAIT! IT WAS HER! CHAT NOIR WAS ABOUT TO GO AND CONFESS TO MARINETTE (who already knew of his feeling), BUT MARINETTE WASN'T GOING TO BE AT HOME! Ladybug took off, racing at top speed to get to her home before Chat could get there. **(A/N, catapult drawing back.)**

She got home in record time and looked around her balcony, seeing if she had managed to beat Chat after all. The red spotted sighed in relief upon noticing that she had in fact managed to get there before her feline partner had. A soft thud behind her let Ladybug know of her partner's arrival. Her shoulders immediately tensed, sensing he was definitely seeing her, she had vaguely hoped that the dark would be her cover. Apparently bright red spandex suits weren't good for remaining unseen, who knew?

"What are you doing here, M'lady?" Chat asked. Yup, he definitely saw her. Reluctantly, the red (literally) spotted hero turned around to face her feline partner. Ladybug gasped at what she saw. Chat noir had made a few stops on his way there, obviously the reason she was there before him. He had gotten a bouquet of the most beautiful crimson roses Ladybug had ever seen tied together with a beautiful ocean blue ribbon that had gold edges that went perfectly with the red of the roses. He had also gotten a small, purpley black box.

"What's in the box?" Ladybug asked, instead of answering his question, which would've gone something along the lines of 'Oh, me? I'm just here because it's my house and you were expecting to see me here, without my mask, to what I presume will be to confess your undying love to me. This time knowing it is me and not leaving me shocked and then kissing me! Also, what the hell is in that box?' yeah... probably for the best she just said most of the last bit.

Chat looked at the box in his hand, a luminescent blush lighting up his cheeks. "Oh..er, this? Well, this is an engagement ring for Marinette." chat stuttered while Ladybug's jaw hit the floor. "I know it seems sudden, but I have never felt so sure of something as I am this. I love Marinette with most of my heart and I want t spend the rest of my life with her."

"And the rest of your heart belongs to me?" She asked softly. He nodded, with little hesitation.

Suddenly Chat noir could feel Ladybug's lips once again pressed against his, but this time it had more pressure and was far more desperate on her part (not a hard thing to do since last time she didn't react much until after contact was severed). He struggled against her for a few seconds, until she let him go. He stumbled a few steps back, both of them breathing heavily. "What the fuck was that?!" Chat demanded, "I literally just told you that I want to marry Marinette and then you go all crazy and kiss me?! What is wrong with you?" **(A/N, shit has lift off! I repeat, shit has lift off! I am having way too much fun with this.)**

The heroine in red blinked at her partner, not quite registering the situation. Then it clicked, she had just kissed her partner as Ladybug, but he loved Marinette and didn't know it was actually Marinette that had just kissed him. Chat's eyes narrowed at her. He was quite obviously and rightfully pissed at her. "Wait, wait! I can explain!" She exclaimed, her hands held defensively in front of her.

"You better have something good."

 _Oh, it is._ She thought. "I...er...I...umm. I just... You know what, it'll be easier to just show you." Chat flinched away slightly, afraid she might start kissing him again. Ladybug just rolled her eyes at the action, then closed them. "Spots off."

Light shimmered over Ladybug only to reveal Marinette standing in her place, looking quite sheepish and incredibly cute with a pink blush on her cheeks...

…...3 **(A/N, shit incoming!)**

…...2 **(A/N, nearly here!)**

…...1 **(A/N prepare for impact!)**

"MARINETTE?!" Chat screeched, "Your Ladybug?!" Marinette nodded while holding her hands over her ears because of the black feline's yell. **(A/N, aaand there goes the shit! All over the story! Ha ha, guess I'll have to sort this mess out while you guys just sit there reading about my mess of a story. Don't worry about me.)**

"Yes its me." Marinette mumbled. She gasped as Chat suddenly got on one knee in front of her, holding out the box. He opened it and inside was a beautiful black ring that had an emerald in the centre of a ring of smaller sapphires with a few ruby's in-between. In short, it was perfect.

"Would you, Marinette Dupain Ladybug Cheng, do me the honour of spending the rest of your life with me and make me the happiest cat alive?"

Marinette squealed in delight, wrapped her arms around Chat's neck with nearly shouting "Yes! Yes, yes! A thousand times yes!". Chat stood up and swung her around, embracing her back. They drew apart and he slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit. The two both went in to kiss the other and while they did, fireworks lit up the night sky in multiple rainbows. The moment was perfect!

"Since you now know me and we're engaged, could you show me who you really are?" Marinette once they had broken apart once more. He just grinned and was soon swallowed by a green light. Adrien was soon left with an unconscious fiancée in his arms. Yup, perfect.

*Flash forward 2 days...

"SHE IS YOUR WHAT?!" Gabriel Agreste shouted. Adrien had thought it best for Marinette to meet his father as soon as possible after that night. The fashion designer was taking it much better than what he had thought he would, the house wasn't on fire yet.

"She is my fiancée, father, Marinette." Adrien replied calmly.

"Yeah, and your both Ladybug and Chat noir as well while I'm a little fairy. I'm not fooling for your cheap tricks Adrien."

The two teenagers blinked, "How did you know we were Ladybug and Chat noir?" the boy asked his father.

Gabriel searched his son's eyes for any hint of deceit or jest, but he could only find curiosity and seriousness. "MY SON IS CHAT FUCKING NOIR AND HIS FIANCEE IS LADYBUG! OH MY GOD! NATALIE! FETCH MY STUFF FROM THE OLD OBSERVATORY! WE WON'T BE NEEDING THAT ANYMORE!" Gabriel may have just lost his mind. "Don't worry about Hawkmoth any more you two, I've officially resigned." He walked out of the room. But he poked his head back around the corner to add, "And I expect to see my grand children running around the place ASAP!" then he left the two in peace.

"Well, I think all in all, that went pretty well." Adrien said. Marinette then metaphorically exploded. Mostly metaphorical, anyway.

*Flash forward tow years

The wedding was like _some lunatic_ had thrown shit at a fan and let it go everywhere, then tried to clear it up by adding more shit to the mix. Marinette was walking calmly down the isle one minute, with Gabriel throwing purple flower petals around after her while dressed in a purple number that would've looked adorable shrunk down and on a 6 year old girl, as it was...lets not go there. Adrien was waiting by the alter and they were soon joined together in matrimony. Then came the reception...

The newly weds were dancing nicely when suddenly, Adrien was lifted up in a blue light and came back down when the light cleared as a chicken (still with his head and face) wearing coconuts and a pink frilly too-too. He clucked once, twice then laid four eggs. Out of said eggs came two chicks whose heads resembled Marinette in looks while the other two were human and closely resembled Adrien.

"Honey, I was meant to have the children." Marinette lightly scolded her husband.

Everything then dissolved into chaos. The children (each at least 5 years old) went on a rampage, destroying everything and anyone in sight (including the poor guests) Nino's decapitated head landed in the cake, some genius threw a shovel of poo at the ceiling fan while everyone ran around screaming...

Gabriel was soon swamped by the kids, each tugging on a limb, ripping him apart by the _seams_ **(A/N,ha ha, fashion puns)**.

Gabriel awoke with a start, heart pounding. It was just a dream, it was just a dream... "But why was my son a chicken?" He pondered aloud. He was so thankful it was a dream, no, nightmare. But what if it wasn't? What if it had all been real after all? He had to go check!

Adrien soon found himself being woken up at 3 in the morning by his father. The questions he received that morning would stay with him for the rest of his life.

 **(A/N, APRIL FOOLS! Ha ha ha ha! Did I get ya? Huh, huh? Did I? No, this didn't happen, it was just a dream. There was a bit of foreshadowing in there but I don't know how accurate it will be by the time I get there. I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I loved writing it. By the way, OnlyHere4Pukabrina, the fourth wall is my bitch, I don't just destroy it!**

 **Do stairs go up or down?**


	17. Chapter 16

**(A/N, I'll be telling a joke this time, the full joke will be at the bottom and I'll warn you now, I got this one from my dad and I can safely say that it is terrible. What do you call a man with a shovel on his head?**

Chapter 16

Ladybug blinked, she had been expecting many things but that...that had not been one of them. "Well, I am sure you could get any girl you choose." She said with confidence.

Chat looked at her with gratitude, "Yeah, I guess. The problem is is that its not just any girl I'm after. She's really something else, so special compared to most girls." Chat noir said wistfully, images of Marinette flooding through his mind along with a few of the red spotted heroine sat next to him. "There's also another problem I have, there isn't only one amazing, unique, beautiful girl that my heart desires. I have two women that are constantly on my mind."

Ladybug looked down at her lap in thought. She was dismayed to hear that there was another girl who had captured Chat's heart. Ladybug knew that Chat had feelings for Ladybug, but she couldn't suddenly start to reciprocate those feelings without arousing suspicion. Besides, Ladybug was just an image created to help Paris, Ladybug was hollow and empty. Without a mask, Ladybug was non-existent. Marinette, on the other hand, was real. Marinette could do be free to do whatever she wanted (within reason) while Ladybug only had two potential destinies, she would either fight crime till she was no longer able to do so because of age or something alike; or she would die trying. Ladybug was doomed to die a hero of Paris, no matter what, since even if Marinette had to give up being Ladybug because of age or injury, Ladybug still dies or at least, Marinette's Ladybug dies. Ladybug was destined to be a hero of Paris so long as she lived, but Marinette had unlimited opportunities. Marinette shad an undetermined future, no set destiny. If Chat was to love her, if not both her identities, she hoped that he would love Marinette. That didn't seem possible at that moment though, with Chat talking of another girl that he loved. Another girl that couldn't possibly be her. No matter what. Only if this was a fanfiction where the author decides everything, could the other girl be her. But as it was, it was impossible.

Ladybug realised she should reply, offer him some sort of indifferent understanding while not letting on that she too had the very same, almost identical **(A/N, very identical in fact. Oh, how I do love irony.)** , dilemma with her own heart, before taking off into the night to cry and hope that Chat didn't turn up at her house. "I know exactly how you feel, Chat. It's so frustrating to be in love with two people at once, especially when they're so similar but oh so very different at the same time." Ladybug mentally face palmed, that was basically the opposite of what she had wanted to do.

Chat seemed to perk up slightly, making him look that much more adorable, "You have romantic interests in two people as well?" he asked.

Looking at his bright green orbs at that moment, everything about him shining and glowing in the moonlight, Ladybug thought that the mangy, black alley cat may have run away with and claimed more of her heart than she was initially aware of. She smiled gently, looking out over Paris. "Yes, but I'm starting to think that my heart may be making it's mind up quicker than I had thought."

The two sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Chat noir thought over his lady's words, that he was soon going to lose her forever. It wasn't as if she would fall for him, her silly, pun-loving partner. He sighed internally. Realistically, his only real chances were with Marinette. He would have already confessed to her if it weren't for the fact that he would only be able to offer her half of his heart (and the fact that he had never, successfully, confessed to a girl and was terrified) , so it wouldn't be a good idea. Chat wished once again that Ladybug and Marinette could be the same person, he had wished it so many times, but he knew that it was an impossible dream and could never be reality.

All too soon, for both parties, Ladybug broke the companionable silence that had settled around them, "I should bug out. It's getting really late and I need to sleep, despite popular belief." she then stood up and readied her yo-yo for another flight across the Paris night sky. Chat stood along with her, getting ready himself.

"Of course, I understand. A lady needs her beauty sleep, even you." He smirked at her and took off, leaving a slightly wistful looking Ladybug staring at his retreating form. She sighed and thought about the fact that another girl held her kitty's heart. Blinking back her tears forcefully she swung off back to her home. Along the way she thought of how it wasn't fair. Chat liked Ladybug and some other girl, but Ladybug would have to reject him, no matter how much it hurt Marinette because Ladybug was not her and she wanted Chat to love her for her, not an illusion of what she could never be.

Ladybug swung swiftly into her room, de-transforming as she landed softly in her room and immediately broke down into a sobbing mess on her bed. She didn't think she would be getting much sleep that night. It was going to be a long night.

And unfortunately, Marinette was right: it was a long night. A very long night.

…...TIMESKIP...

The next morning Adrien was sat in class talking to Nino... okay, he was more talking at Nino about his conflicting emotions over which beautiful, dark haired, blue eyed girl he should let run away with his heart. Although Adrien was talking in a seemingly endless stream, both boys knew that he wasn't really paying much attention. The classroom door seemed to hold the better part of the blonde model's attention.

"Alright, I give. What's wrong? You've been staring at the door as if it had eaten your cookie then told you to drink a bottle of Chloe's most expensive perfume." Nino said.

"It's nothing." Adrien assured his friend.

Nino gave him 'The Look' that told Adrien crystal clear that he wasn't fooling anyone.

"Alright, alright. It's just that Marinette isn't here yet." Adrien confessed. Nino burst out laughing but Adrien cut him off with his own look, "I know she's usually late, but she would normally be here by now. I'm kinda worried."

Nino thought for a minute and then seemed to have an idea. The DJ turned around to face Alya who had her head buried in her phone, as per usual. "Hey, Alya, where's Mari?" Nino asked her.

Alya looked up at them, "Marinette isn't coming in today, she's feeling a bit ill and stuff." she told them.

"Is she alright?" Adrien asked, his concern evident from Mars.

"Yeah, she should be in a while. I'm going over to see her after school to make sure she's fine." Alya assured the worried boy.

It was a long day for Adrien. At lunch, he decided that Marinette would be getting a visit from her favourite cat themed hero that day. He went around feeling less glum after that, but if anything it made the day drag on just that bit more.

 **(A/N, I hate this chapter, I really do. It's too short, nothing happens and I don't feel it's my best work by a long chalk. Oh well. I'm looking forward to next chapter since, so long as it goes as I plan, it should be enjoyable. I've also started writing a chapter that I'm not expecting to publish for a while yet and it's driving me crazy since I really like it, plus it's the chapter when Marinette and Chat FINALLY get somewhere with their feelings. But I'm gonna have to wait. Although, I would like to congratulate myself on the fact that I am actually writing ahead which I'm pretty sure is a type of planning. It is now anyway and so I shall bask in that small glory.**

 **On another note, I recently watched the anime Violet Evergarden and I loved it. It was so beautiful and emotional. I cried several times and I got so attached to the characters. I would highly recommend it to anyone.**

 **Updates may be a bit slower for a while as I have mock exams coming up, having said that, that may be the exact same reason that I update more. Writing is a great tool for procrastination.**

 **What do you call a man with a shovel on his head? Cliff.**


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The minute the bell for the end of school rang out both Alya and Adrien dashed out of the classroom and out of school. They got questioning looks as they raced through the corridors. Adrien especially since it was almost expected by that point for Alya to be rushing off to some place or another in her quest to be a great journalist and her crusade to discover the hidden and ever elusive identity of Ladybug, but for Adrien to be seen running was nearly scandalous. If anyone asked him though, he would claim that he had forgotten about a photo-shoot and was already 5 minutes late. He knew he had too good of a record to be sanctioned though. Sometimes it just pays to be a 'goody two shoes', no one ever minds the odd missed or late homework and teachers will turn a blind eye to the occasional slight misdeed.

When Adrien finally reached Marinette's balcony, after what seemed like the longest run in his life, he took a minute to compose himself. Chat had been chased by a mob of crazed fangirls while on his way so he had had to take a detour with which to lose them. He couldn't lead them to Marinette, what kind of knight in shining leather would he be if he led a swarm of crazed witches to his Princess? After getting his breathing under control, he knocked on the familiar trap door and heard a muffled 'go away Chat' through it. Chat frowned, why wouldn't his princess want to see him? She had always welcomed him in the past. Chat noir was not one to give up though, so he jumped through the trapdoor anyway and found himself in an equally surprising, awkward and predictable scene. The predictability came from the fact that Alya was there (an explanation/flashback/story would be told in a brief time) and it was surprising because Marinette was crying her eyes out while her best friend tried to comfort her. It was just awkward because they were both staring at Chat accusingly because everyone in the room knew for a fact that he had walked in despite being told to 'go away'. Chat was not surprised to see Alya, he often did (more than they all knew thanks to him being Adrien as well) when he came over nowadays. It was definitely a story to remember, how Alya had found out about Chat's visits...

 ** _*Flash back *_ **

_It was a Friday night and Chat was laughing and joking with Marinette while she awaited Alya's arrival for their movie marathon that they had been planning all week. Chat had been there for about three hours by that point and was planning on revealing the little surprise he had brought for her._

 _Chat noir had stretched and walked a little ways across Marinette's bedroom, his back facing her to hide the smirk that was undoubtedly etched on his face. He reached quietly out to the windowsill he had 'unknowingly' ended up next to, grabbing the item he had planted there the night before in the knowledge that she wouldn't notice it._

" _Are you alright, Chat?" Marinette's voice called out from behind him, lightly tinged with worry. It made him **paws** for a moment, hearing the worry in her voice, the concern. Anyone would stop their scheming and planning upon hearing the naïve and caring tone. Chat noir, however, was not anyone. Chat noir was a hero of Paris. He was brave, cool, handsome, a master of puns and most importantly in this particular situation, out for sweet sweet revenge. He had planned it out down to the tiniest de **tail** and was **paw** sative nothing would or could stand in the way of him and his vengeance._

 _Meanwhile, down in the bakery beneath the conniving cat and his prey, a certain young journalist entered said bakery with a little tinkle of a bell. Alya was welcomed into the Dupain-Cheng home like normal by Tom and Sabine, who both treated her almost as an extra daughter. Alya went about making her way up to Marinette's room. She was on her way up the last flight of stairs to Marinette's room when she heard it. The girl paused immediately, the noise had sounded suspiciously like a moan. Specifically a male moan. Alya crept up the last of the steps before pausing just underneath the trapdoor and started to listen. Soon enough there was another one, and then a muffled complaint of 'No, Mari, don't stop' which was followed by Marinette's equally muffled giggle and a 'well, it's what you get as payback!'. Alya's brain was going a mile a minute. A boy was in Marinette's room, with Marinette, alone. There were moaning noises coming from the unidentified boy with the young designer talking about payback. Now Alya wasn't one to jump to conclusions (okay, she was, but for the purpose of this inner monologue she wasn't) and Marinette was her friend. Alya had known Marinette for quite a while now and she knew the girl was unlikely to do something impulsive or improperly thought out (okay, she was, but for the sake of this inner monologue she wasn't) but Alya's mind was going places that she knew Marinette wouldn't go or approve of. Alya wanted to be a journalist and so in attempts to be able to spot good and interesting stories she has watched things that neither Marinette or her parents (if her parents knew, that is) approved of. But it was down that road which her mind was now going, and what a dirty, dirty road it was._

 _Two more suggestive noises later and Alya couldn't stop herself from bursting through the trapdoor that she had been camped beneath. "Marinette! What is going-" The sight that greeted her stopped her in her tracks. "on?" Alya finished lamely._

 _Whatever it was that was going on, it was not what Alya had been expecting to see._

 _On Marinette's bed sat one Marinette that was looking at her like a deer caught in headlights, legs crossed. A black shape was sprawled across her friends lap, a shape that she quickly identified as Chat noir. Chat looked quite sheepish to have been caught laying over Marinette, her hand in his hair and his tail curled almost possessively around the designer's waist. Both of them were drenched to the bone with water and there were two water pistols discarded near the end of the bed. Alya cast her eyes around the rest of the pink room and found, after a quick scan, that much of the room was damp or dripping. All in all Alya's response of folding her arms across her chest, cocking out one hip, tapping her foot on the floor and saying "Marinette, I didn't know you had it in you to cheat on your boyfriend.", was quite unexpected._

 _The reaction was instantaneous, Marinette flailed about wildly, spluttering about not having a boyfriend and how she and Chat weren't together anyway (although it was in such a jumble that she might as well have said it in Japanese and still made more sense than she did then) while Chat scrambled away from the bluenette , possibly because of Alya's presence, more likely to avoid Marinette's flailing limbs that were going everywhere. Chat looked quite embarrassed and was sporting a slightly red face._

 _When everything (eventually) settled down, Alya demanded to know what was going on between them, how long had it been going on, were they together, did Ladybug know and why in the name of all that was/is sacred had Marinette not told her?_

 _There was a slightly awkward evening of Marinette and Chat answering all of Alya's questions in a similar manner to that of children being scolded by their mother. The two teenagers being interrogated sat side by side in identical positions of legs crossed, arms limp by their sides, backs hunched in submission to Alya's wrath and each sporting a look of almost pitiful resignation to their fates of being murdered by the angered reporter. After the questions passed though, Alya sighed and for lack of a better term, deflated onto Marinette's bed, an arm thrown dramatically over her eyes._

" _You dead?" Marinette asked her friend, poking her in the ribs. Alya swatted her hand aside and gave a frustrated huff,_

" _Yeah, I just wish I had caught that all on camera." They all laughed at that and the tension dissipated with it. The three teenagers soon got a film running and they sat around, watching films, talking about this and that and sharing stories. Alya even managed to get Chat to agree to an interview, on the condition that Alya tell no one of his and Marinette's friendship. Alya heard some interesting stories from the two that night, about the incident with the water pistol (the first one anyway), Marinette finding out about Chat's fear of horror films and about Chat's atrocious baking skills (but that one's a story for another flashback)._

 _All in all, they became quickly acquainted, it becoming a common occurrence for Chat to burst in on Alya and Marinette's girls nights in out of the blue. Or for Alya to come into Marinette's room to find Marinette teasing Chat with a red laser that would dart around her room with a certain leather cat on its trail._

 _ ***Flash back ***_

Anyway, back to the present, Chat was having daggers glared straight into his soul, tearing it apart. I f looks could kill, the glares Alya and Marinette were sending him would've smote him where he was stood, leaving a small steaming crater and a few ashes and scraps of leather falling quietly down to the charred remains of carpet.

"So...um... Bad time?" Chat asked nervously, backing away a couple of steps.

Marinette looked at him, her eyes overflowing with so much sadness that it made his heart ache. "Please Chat, if you care about me at all, please leave. Just for tonight. Tomorrow I'll be fine, but tonight I just need to be with Alya, rubbish films and chocolate ice-cream." Marinette pleaded with Chat, her voice a soft, broken whisper of the joyful tone she usually spoke with.

The feline hero nodded hesitantly. He then walked over to where she was laying over Alya on her bed and kneeled on the floor next to her. He stared into her eyes for a minute, quiet blanketing the room like the heat from a fire in winter. Chat closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on hers. If this had been under any other circumstance, Alya would have certainly got her camera out.

"I'll go." Chat spoke softly, the two once again opening their eyes. "But tell me one thing before I do: who or what made you cry like this? Is there anything at all I can do to make you feel better? I could go claw someone's eyes out for you, or deliver a message. Please let me do something to help you, it's hurting me to see you in such pain." Marinette simply sighed, letting a light smile grace her lips and gently shook her head.

The blonde then stood, "Are you absolutely sure there's nothing I can do?" he asked once more. The blue haired girl nodded and added a 'no, but thank you Chat', but Alya held up a finger,

"Actually, there is one thing." the auburn haired girl said with a smirk.

"What?" Chat asked eagerly, happy to be able to help.

Alya grabbed her purse from the bed side table and took out some money, handing it to the hero of Paris she stated "You can get us some more ice-cream. We're running out."

The other two occupants of the room blinked at the aspiring reporter. But Chat soon shook himself out of his stupor and gave an exaggerated bow, "Oh, but of course. We couldn't have two ladies, such as yourselves, running out of ice-cream. That would be simply _cat_ astrophic!". He started heading for the trapdoor that would lead him out on his quest for ice-cream for his princess and friend. "Is there any particular flavour that I should endeavour to find?"

"Find something with as much chocolate as possible." Alya requested, "Thank you Chat, this means a lot."

"Any time. The job of a hero of Paris is never over, after all." Chat waved her off. "Now do excuse me, I need to go give a shop assistant the shock of their lives."

And with that, plus a wink, the leather clad hero went outside on his quest for chocolate ice-cream. It wasn't until much later, after the knock on the trapdoor that alerted Alya and Marinette to the cold desert's arrival, that the two girls realised with a bit of shock that Chat hadn't taken the money. They sat, surrounded by tubs, some full and others empty, realising that Chat wasn't just a hero of Paris, he was one of the greatest friends anyone could ever ask for. He had brought enough ice-cream to fill a small lorry. Marinette thought that Chat may have been the most selfless person she knew.

Alya, after that night, was brought to two conclusions. One good. One bad. The good being that Marinette had obvious romantic feelings for the black kitty that were clearly returned. The bad that she could no longer in good conscience ask for interviews, or try to unmask the hero in front of the internet and Paris (no matter how it would boost her career) as Chat wasn't just some faceless hero to her any more, he was a friend who she had no doubt would do nothing short of worship her best friend when they inevitably got together.

 **(A/N, So... ha, ha, ha... I um... have...er... I... Yup, no, I got no excuse. This chapter just took forever. I have been revising quite a bit though so that took up valuable writing time. I am also working on a Sherlock fanfic since I have recently become indoctrinated into that fandom. I hope you guys like this chapter, I enjoyed writing it. I was aiming for fluff and cuteness so let me know how you think I did.**

 **'Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.' Terry Pratchett.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 18**

Marinette and Alya were lounging in Marinette's room, on the same night as the previous chapter, almost as if this scene were to make up for an author forgetting important information as to why the last chapter's events had happened. Stupid, forgetful author. Anyway, the two teenage girls were laying on the young designer's bed, eating ice-cream that Chat noir had oh so heroically brought them and talking each other around a metaphorical round about (one Marinette had gone around many times with Tikki before the red kwami had given up and told Marinette to talk to her best friend about it). They had been going for hours now, only interrupted by films, ice-cream and Chat noir. It was getting dull and tedious and repetitive and repetitive and really, really repetitive.

"All I'm saying, and I'll say it again and again-" Marinette was saying but was cut off by Alya's sarcastic remark of,

"That ships already sailed. Two to three hours ago." which earned her a playful thwack on her arm.

"-that I don't have any reason to feel like this. I love Adrien, not Chat. I have no reason to be upset about this." Marinette complained.

The round about of thoughts and debate have gone roughly like this: Marinette complains that she feels upset about Chat having two love interests that isn't her (well, only one, but Alya needn't know that she was Ladybug). Alya will tell her that she doesn't know that for sure as Chat never told her who the other girl is. Marinette will argue that she shouldn't even care as he is her _friend_ not her love interest. The young reporter then makes the obvious observation of 'but you do care' and so Marinette complains about Chat having love interests that aren't her. There's often random smaller arguments part way through a cycle and there's a bit more detail but you get the picture.

It didn't help matters when the object of Marinette's frustrations came in and acted so sweet it made the tons of ice-cream he brought low in sugars. After he had left the bluenette looked at her friend for about 20-30 seconds before collapsing in a heap on the floor wailing how it wasn't fair that he was so kind to her and yet not romantically interested.

Marinette refused to admit through all of this, through all of her tears that she had feelings for him. She refused to admit that her romantic feelings for the black cat were what bothered her and the reason why him looking at other girls made toxic green jealousy roar through her veins. Marinette is nothing if not stubborn.

 **LBCNLBCNLBCNLBCNLBCNLBCN**

The next day, well evening, Marinette was outside on her balcony awaiting the arrival of her black kitty. She was sure he would come after the previous night. The bluenette had thought over everything between then and now. About all those times Chat had made her laugh. The water fights they had had. Of all the times spent sharing tales (or rather _tails_ ) of all that went on in their lives, Marinette usually being more specific than Chat, but the fact he shared anything spoke volumes to the young designer about his trust in her. The wind blew gently through her blue black pigtails.

Behind her sounds a light thud, signalling her to the arrival of her partner's arrival. Although, she'd been listening to him careening over rooftops for a little while by the time he had arrived. Her miraculous had increased her senses, helping her hear things like cars flying towards her in the heat of battle. "Getting rusty, Chat? I could hear you at least two roofs away, it used to be half that." Marinette sassed him, not needing to turn to know it was the black cat, he was after all, the only other person besides her who could get up to the rooftops without going up through the building.

Chat walked up to lean against the railing of her balcony next to her. He stared out at the street opposite, as if searching for the latest akuma, his face unusually devoid of emotion. They stood in companionable silence for a while, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts. That is, until Chat noir broke it asking, "Are you alright?" to Marinette with a gentle care in his eye and worry written clearly across his face as he turned to face the young designer.

Marinette sighed, a light breeze tugged at her shoulder a little harder than it had the rest of the time she'd spent up there, almost like some higher power was telling her to tell the truth. But that couldn't happen, she couldn't just come right out and say ' _Yeah, totally fine. Everything's just dandy! I mean, other than the fact that you have a crush on two girls, one of which isn't me and the one that is me I can't act on because while it is me, it isn't me enough for you to actually like me as me. Before you say anything, that previous sentence does make sense and I know about your crushes because you told me, well you didn't tell me, you told Ladybug who is me but isn't me enough for me to believe you actually like me as Marinette. Unless by some strange miracle your other crush is me as Marinette, but honestly, there is no chance of that happening unless, of course, this is a fanfiction written by some overly obsessive teenage fangirl and we are actually just cartoon characters that she has put into her fanfic so she can cannon her ship about us because our actual characters are too dumb to get together! But like that's ever going to happen... So yes! I'm absolutely fine!'_ Yeeaaah, no way in hell would she actually say that to Chat. "I'm fine Chat." She dismissed his worry.

Silence reigned once more.

"Care to tell me what was wrong last night? It would ease my mind to know if I should hurt someone for whatever they did to you." Adrien hadn't slept much the previous night, thinking about what had Marinette, the happiest, kindest girl he knew in tears.

Marinette smiled and nearly laughed out loud at the thought of Chat hitting himself, but managed to contain her laughter. Instead she asked "Did you know Alya changed the LadyBlog?"

"No. What did she do?" Marinette internally smirked, curiosity killed the chat and apparently saved her from answering questions she didn't want to answer.

"The role of it has changed, before she was trying to unmask the two of you, but now the blog is dedicated to praising you and showing Paris and anyone else who will listen about how great Ladybug is." Marinette looked at her friend, her partner and watched as the emotions ran over his partially covered features. First was surprise, then relief followed by a brief look of worry. His face finally settled on a teasing hurt and concern as he questioned,

"You mean, dedicated to praising Ladybug _and_ me, right?"

The young designer smirked, "Nope, just Ladybug. She said you weren't heroic enough or something.."

Marinette was enjoying the look on his face when a building a few streets away went boom in a cloud of smoke that was both the shape and colours of a pineapple. "Well, _Purr_ incess, as much as I would love to keep discussing Alya's horribly misleading blog and the obvious lessons I shall have to give her about what makes a _claw_ some hero, duty calls." Chat told her, smirk on his stupid face as he lifted her stupid hand to said stupid face and lightly kissed the stupid hand, while she stupidly gaped at him with a stupid blush rising like lava on her cheeks. All in all it was a pretty stupid moment on Marinette's part.

Chat had soon turned and fled towards the explosion, pointedly not looking at Marinette as a blush rose on his own face. _That was such a stupid thing to do! She doesn't like me as more than a friend. What if thing's are awkward now?_ Chat berated himself furiously. He barely made it three roof tops however before he heard Marinette scream at him from behind and he turned just in time... to get punched in the face.

 **(A/N, Ha ha ha... Soo... This is later than planned. I've kinda been busy though, between revising, reading other fanfiction, being on holiday and deciding to dedicate my time to not moving out of bed for as long as physically possible. So far my record for latest time out of bed is around half 4, PM. My laptop is on the other side of my room, which is just soooo far away, it's like a whole 2-3 meters... Yeah, I'm being lazy but it's the summer holidays so I feel entitled to be lazy. It's my right as a teenager.**

 **Anyway, yes, cliffhanger. Ha ha! I disappear for however long, I can't be bothered to count, and then leave on what is (if I do say so myself) the best attempt at a cliffhanger yet. But don't worry! This was thought up with a whole 5 seconds worth of thought! It can't possibly go wrong!**

 **Whoever says that nothing is impossible clearly hasn't tried nailing jelly to a tree. (I should probably point out that none of the jokes or whatever at the end of chapters belong to me, I just think they're funny, amusing, strange, noteworthy etc. etc.)**


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